The Federal Ombudsman for Children’s Rights has turned to the Moscow authorities in defence of the residential rights of orphans and social orphans.

Rights infringements suffered by those within this category of society, according to the Ombudsman, are to be considered and lead to changes in current legislation. Namely, these include the opportunity for children in such a position to receive accommodation in the form of individual apartments, which are situated in the Moskovskaya oblast’, but not in their home towns (i.e. not within the borders of their local county). This goes directly against active legislation and undermines the individual’s citizenry rights.

The following proposal was made by the Federal Ombudsman for Children’s Rights, Pavel Astakhov, to the Minister for Education and Research, Andrey Fursenko. Mr. Astakhov has called the minister to make it clear that regional ministries, departments and education committees should be working together with regional children’s ombudsmen to run open classes directed at improving the rights knowledge and education of school children.

by an agreement which allows the orphan to remain at the address free of charge

Experts have been discussing the problems surrounding Russian legislation on accommodation provided for orphans and the graduates of orphanages at a round table session which took place at the press centre of “A&F”. Up until the year 2000, accommodation was offered to orphans on a social lease agreement, said the primary deputy head of the Department for Residential Policy and the Residential Fund for Moscow, Nikolai Fedoseev. According to his findings, 50% of all residential spaces are not used for their intended purpose, and in 25% of these cases, the orphanage graduates under whose name the flats are registered cannot be found, even with the assistance of the security forces. In Article 57 of the Residential Codex of the Russian Federation, the right of orphans and social orphans to accommodation is sealed in law, but only if it is accommodation which is offered on the basis of a social lease contract.

the sale of alcohol to adolescents

Around 0.5 million youngsters in Russia were tried in 2009 for abusing spirits in public places and for being found to be under the influence of alcoholic beverages. On this issue spoke the senior inspector for the Department of Social Order and Security within the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Irina Maiboroda, at a press conference held by RIA-“Novosti”. The data which has been compiled includes details of those who have been detained by the police forces and who have been subjected to examinations in a hospital or narcotics centre, said the speaker. In reality, the number of young people who purchase alcohol is much higher.

Moscow’s Department for Social Protection has moved to a new address: as of 19th July, it will be based in Building No. 1, House 10, Novaya Basmannaya St. (walking distance from metro station “Krasnye Vorota”). For the Department’s hotline, call: (495) 623-10-59,(495) 623-10-59 (24 hours a day), 623-10-20 (on Mondays, 15:00-18:00).

The head of Moscow’s Civil Registry Offices, Irina Murav’yova, has announced that the number of children adopted by foreign nationals is decreasing: in the first half of the year, 99 babies were adopted by foreigners, when, over the same period last year, 159 children were given new homes in other countries. According to Murav’yova’s sources, the birth rate has risen by 10% in the first half of 2010, with 2,000 more boys being conceived than girls.

“Code to Life” is being developed

This is an important stage in the work of the children’s mini-project “The Life Vector” which is being realized by the charity “Women and Children First” as part of the “Listening to Children” project (which is one of the programmes covered by the current Institution Building Partnerships Programme (IBPP) between Russia and the EU). The aim of the mini-project is to create a modern and popular product which could work as something to help tackle the ignorance of or indifference towards rights violations. This is to be a computer programme called “Code to Life”, designed to educate children about their rights and created by teenagers at orphanage No. 9 in Cherepovets.