Proposals from NGOs have been incorporated
in the National Child Welfare Strategy

President
Putin has signed a decree instituting a national child welfare strategy for the
period 2012 to 2017. He made an announcement about this in person at a ceremony
in the Kremlin at which awards were conferred upon people who had been
outstanding parents. The Kremlin press office quoted the president as saying
that the priorities of the strategy included providing the younger generation
with an environment that is beneficial, supportive and secure, promoting the
welfare of every Russian child, and affording equal opportunities for their
comprehensive development and self-realisation. Amongst other priority
measures, the initiative involves drafting and enacting a law setting out the
principles on which the state’s policy on families and the legislative approach
to the reform of the guardianship agencies are based. A particular aspect is
the planned improvement of the system of tax allowances for families with
children and the creation of a state child maintenance fund.

Aleksei
Golovan, the executive director of the charity, Complicity in Fate, told the
ASI correspondent that a group of specialists were working on the bill and that
he was co-ordinating their efforts. He mentioned Galina Semya, director of the
Interregional Research and Innovation Institute of Professional Competence in
the Moscow Academy of Finance and the Humanities, Oleg Zykov,president of the
charity, Say ‘No‘ to Alcohol and Drugs, Nodar Khananashvili, member of the
Public Chamber of the City of Moscow, Denise Roza, director of a regional
organisation for disabled people, Perspectiva, Marina Egorova, president of the
National Foundation for the Protection of Children from Abuse, Lyudmila  Rzhanitsyna, chief scientist at the Russian
Academy of Sciences Institute of Economics and others.

Practically
all the proposals from the NGOs have been taken up in the text which the
president signed, stressed Mr Golovan. All the regions, the relevant ministries
(around 20 departments) the Public Chamber, the Criminal Investigations
Committee, the Office of the Prosecutor General and the Supreme Court all
contributed views. In addition, parliamentary hearings were held in March at
the Council of the RF regarding the proposed strategy, in which ministers
Tatyana Golikova, Rashid Nurgaliev, and Andrei Fursenko and NGO representatives
took part. Ms Semya told ASI in an interview that this was the first time that
children had participated in the formulation of a document having such a wide
scope. One of the aspects of the strategy was devoted to implementation of
children’s right to be heard, which did not feature in any other Russian
document, she observed. She added that the approved national strategy had been
‘born’ not in the ministerial offices but within the specialist group. Mr
Golovan emphasised that the strategy contained the elements of state policy on
children over the next few years. It did not include concrete measures which
the relevant departments will be working up. Ms Semya said that the strategy
was aimed at eliminating causes of distress whether of children or families.
One of the main conditions for success in that regard was the creation of a
‘children’s budget’ (with a distinct constituent of the state budget being
flagged as expenses in relation to children), she observed.

Mr
Golovan declared that further action on implementation of the national strategy
would involve the public. In particular, NGO representatives would be included
in the Presidential Co-ordinating Council for the Implementation of the
National Child Welfare Strategy for 2012-2017.

http://www.asi.org.ru/asi3/rws_asi.nsf/va_WebPages/E2AE5B798E7791AB44257A1300308C46Rus