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Q&A: Russia's Children Remain "Highly Vulnerable"
Interview with UNICEF's Carel de Rooy
MOSCOW, May 31 (IPS) - "While UNICEF is happy that children's rights are commemorated on Jun. 1, we would like to see every day of the year be 'International Children's Day', particularly in Russia, where children remain highly vulnerable," says Carel de Rooy, the United Nations agency's representative in Russia and Belarus.
Through efforts by the government and non-profit organisations, backed by comprehensive programmes, there could be positive change, suggests De Rooy in this interview with IPS Moscow correspondent Kester Kenn Klomegah.
IPS: What, in your assessment, are the most pressing issues affecting Russia's children today?
CAREL DE ROOY: The government of the Russian Federation has increased support to families with children in Russia. However, more needs to be done to ensure that every child realises his or her full potential. A great number of children in the Russian Federation remain highly vulnerable.
The UNICEF Child Poverty study conducted in 2005 shows that families with children make up the biggest group among the poor... Extreme levels of risk and depth of poverty are characteristic of large families. Single-parent families are also a vulnerable group. At the same time, even the birth of a second child in a (family with two parents) increases the risk of poverty to 50 percent.
IPS: How deep is the children's crisis now?
CR: Just 34 percent of children are breastfed for the first six months, 66 percent of the population are at risk of having their physical and mental capacity compromised by iodine deficiency, and 40 percent of adolescent males consume alcohol in excess.
Almost 100 new cases of HIV are registered every day, with 43 percent of all newly registered HIV cases being women of childbearing age. While Russia's infant, child and maternal ratios are gradually declining, life expectancy and fertility rates are also declining.
Particularly alarming is that the life expectancy of Russian men at age 30 has shown no change since World War II, despite significant achievements in modern medicine during this time. Greater attention to preventive health is required, complementing high-cost curative measures with low-cost, high-impact preventive measures.
UNICEF supports projects aimed at HIV prevention, prevention of iodine deficiency, and promotes healthy lifestyles through "youth friendly clinics" and information centres. It also promotes breastfeeding through a "baby-friendly hospitals" initiative.
In Russia, 600,000 children are registered as disabled, more than 50,000 children are affected by HIV stigma, and the lack of tolerance towards children with differences (e.g. children with disabilities or children affected by HIV/AIDS, ethnic minorities, children of migrants) is very common. To ensure children's rights and ensure social inclusion, these attitudes towards children who are different need to be changed. UNICEF's inclusive education project demonstrates that society can only benefit from including children with differences into mainstream education.
IPS: Which approaches do you think are most effective after observing the children's crisis?
CR: The concluding observations of the (UN's) Committee on the Rights of the Child highlighted the vulnerabilities faced by children in Russia and specifically recommended some shifts in concepts, moving from a conviction that state care is the most appropriate response to the view that family-based care is best; and moving from a curative to a more preventive health care approach. These overarching concepts have been expressed in all three of the Committee's sets of concluding observations made in the Russian Federation's periodic reports.
In UNICEF's perspective, the following key paradigm shifts are required to improve the situation of children in Russia: From institutions to family-based care and support to birth families.
An estimated 730,000 children live without parental care. Approximately 180,000 children are in institutions. While the number of children in Russia has fallen by 7.81 million from 1990 to 2005, the number of cases of cancellation of parental rights increased from 49,100 in 1990 to 133,000 in 2005.
IPS: Who are the social orphans and how are they different from homeless children?
CR: Support to orphans is a necessary and important measure. However, children in institutions still desperately need loving parents and family. Ten years ago, the concept of family-based care being preferable to state-provided care was not widely considered or discussed, let alone agreed. Now, that concept is more accepted and the search is on for ideas and methods. However, emphasis is made on family placement of children that are currently in institutions. Greater support to families with children is required to prevent child abandonment and abuse and to prevent children from being placed in institutions or ending up in the streets.
IPS: Do you think parents are unaware of their rights? Can you explain a bit what parental rights mean here?
CR: UNICEF supports projects helping families in need - in Russia, helping families stay together. In cases when it is impossible for a child to stay with his or her biological family, social workers try to find close relatives who can take care of the child, and in the most critical cases, a foster family. Our experience shows that long-term or permanent deprivation of parental rights, a practice that is widely used in Russia is not always in the best interests of the child. Russia needs to dramatically reduce child abandonment and cancellation of parental rights and at the same time implement de-institutionalisation processes to help children who are currently in institutions.
IPS: What steps can be taken to solve these problems? Do you think it is also necessary to utilise legislative means?
CR: All work should be conducted under the principle of the best interests of the child. Supporting the biological family and enabling it to establish a safe and nurturing environment for their children is the key priority. In the absence of a biological family, or if preservation of the child in his or her family is deemed to be impossible, priority should be on placement of a child as early as possible with other biological relatives, based on guardianship or adoption arrangements.
When a child cannot be with biological parents or relatives, priority should be given to the child's adoption by Russian families in the first place, and secondly, by foreign families - with the best interests of the child always being the guiding principle.
If adoption is not a possibility, then alternative family care or other family-based care settings should be arranged. Training and supervision for potential parents is critical. Strategies such as this provide a good opportunity for both parents and children to test whether such relationships work.
In exceptional circumstances, a child could be placed in and institution, with his or her rights and interests being duly respected. In this process, the focus should still be directed largely towards transforming institutions' roles into resource centres.
The majority of funding should be directed towards supporting the biological family, with decreasing amounts for the other options. While greater material and human resources may be needed in the short-term to keep children safely with their biological families, the dividends on this investment will be considerable, as the number of institutionalised children reduces over time. (END/2007)
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