The Vitebsk Regional Prosecutor's Office Collegium considered topical issues of child rights protection

At a meeting of the Vitebsk Regional Prosecutor's Office, with the participation of district prosecutors and heads of the Internal Affairs Directorate, the Main Departments for Education and Healthcare, topical issues of protecting the rights of children who have suffered from cruelty and violence in families, including sexual offenses, were considered.

In the region, out of all 3,525 children recognized as being in a socially dangerous situation, only 5 children throughout the region are registered due to domestic violence.

However, this data does not reflect the actual state of affairs, as law enforcement agencies regularly receive information about physical and psychological abuse of minors in families.

As many as 11 criminal cases of violent crimes have been initiated concerning offenses committed by family members against their children.

In many regions of the oblast, prosecutors have issued orders to guardianship and trusteeship authorities this year to protect the rights of children who have become victims of violence between parents, or when violence is used by negligent parents directly against children.

For example, the prosecutor of the Orsha district issued such orders three times, where children suffered due to parents committing crimes related to causing less severe bodily harm, torture, and threats of murder to family members.

After acts of prosecutorial supervision, children were recognized as being in a socially dangerous situation and were taken away from negligent parents.

In turn, internal affairs bodies do not always inform guardianship and trusteeship authorities about known incidents of domestic scandals and violence, as a result of which social investigations are not conducted and measures to protect children are not taken.

Prosecutors have been required not only to take measures to protect children but also to conduct comprehensive checks on the effectiveness of informing guardianship and trusteeship authorities about cases of family distress.

Educational institutions in the region have conducted 7,719 social investigations, of which 2,787 investigations were conducted without the participation of

employees of internal affairs bodies, which degrades their quality. There are cases when social investigations without internal affairs officers were unsuccessful, in the absence of objective information from police officers about the real situation in families, measures to protect children were not taken.

Internal affairs bodies did not always transfer materials to prosecutors for initiating administrative proceedings on cases of domestic violence within the prosecutor's powers, as a result of which parents evaded responsibility. For example, in Novopolotsk, within a year, proceedings against the head of a family who beat his wife, daughter, and son born in 2002 were terminated three times due to reconciliation of the parties.

Crimes against the sexual inviolability of minors are of particular concern. Cases have been identified where educational institutions and internal affairs bodies work with families formally, which allows parents to commit violence against children, or when such violence occurs with their connivance.

The work of a number of healthcare institutions on transferring information that may indicate the commission of crimes against sexual inviolability against children, including by family members and other persons living with them, needs further activation. In 3 districts of the region, such information has not been transferred at all in the last two years, and in 4 districts, information has been transferred in isolated cases.

By the decision of the collegium of the regional prosecutor's office, additional organizational and practical measures have been taken to improve prevention in this area of activity.

Senior Assistant Prosecutor of the Region Anton Volkov