Dear Children and Respected Adults!

The first stage of the competition “In Defence of My Rights” has come to an end.

Participants have included groups of children and adults from orphanages and residential schools in Moscow, the Moscow oblast’, Volgograd, the Volgogradskaya oblast’, the Krasnodarsky region, Novy Urengoy, Noyabr’sk, Cherepovets, Ivanovo, Perm’, Yekaterinburg and elsewhere.

An expert committee has carefully studied all the applications and selected the winners.

The work of the Children’s Social Council, which is overseen by Russia’s Federal Ombudsman for Children’s Rights, continues. In preparation for the council’s next session, an independent survey on “Children Against Abuse” was run by the child members of the council in their own schools and institutions.

However, the administrative staff in one of Moscow’s residential care homes chose not to support the initiative: the results of the survey which the children organized were not presented for further discussion. Unfortunately, the “voice” of those children, who took part in the survey at this institution, will not be heard at the Children’s Social Council.

All schools within the capital are to have their own ombudsmen for the rights of children and adults who work in schools. The news was announced by Moscow’s Ombudsman for Children’s Rights, Evgeny Bunimovich. It’s expected that this new ruling will lessen the number of conflicts and tense situations which schools often experience. Until now, ombudsmen of this kind were only posted in schools in Moscow’s southern district. “Making a complaint is not always the best solution to solving disputes. It’s better if an issue is solved by the Ombudsman," said Bunimovich.

Dear Children and Respected Adults!

We are sincerely grateful for your cooperation in the competition “In defence of our rights”. Groups of children and adults from orphanages and residential schools in Moscow and the Moscovskaya oblast’, Volgograd and the Volgograskaya oblast’, the Krasnodarsky region, Novy Urengoy, Noyabr’sk, Cherepovets, Ivanovo, Perm’, Ekaterinburg and elsewhere all took part in the competition.

As part of the IBPP program between Russian and the EU, the project “Listening to Children” is run by the charitable organization “Women and Children First”. One of the most important things which this project’s work has achieved in the past year is the creation of the Children’s Social Council, run under the aegis of the Federal Ombudsman for Children’s Rights.

At a press conference held at the central office of “Interfax” on Thursday, Pavel Astakhov made it very clear that the future activity of his governmental body was to be increased considerably. “Children’s Ombudsmen must become public figures of greater significance within our country’s regions; I have, in fact, just past a new ruling, which is aimed at installing more ombudsmen in currently unmonitored regions,” he said, adding that the ombudsmen must be put in office not only within large towns and cities, but also in individual schools themselves.

Source: “Interfax”

Before long, Russia will have its first Children’s Civic Chamber, announced the newly-appointed Federal Ombudsman for Children’s Rights, the legal attorney Paul Astakhov. “We and the Civic Chamber have already agreed on the possible terms for forming the Children’s Chamber. If we get the support we need, then we should be able to get things started in the near future,” Astakhov announced on Thursday at a press conference at “Interfax”’s central office.

According to his words, Russia will see the creation of a social council, run by the Ombudsman for Children’s Rights and working alongside the regional ombudsmen, as well as social councils within schools and academies throughout the country. The ombudsman went on to say that such a system “is crucial, since any issue which is confronted by society must remain within the control of the public.”

ITAR-TASS