Family Code to regulate new forms of protecting children that remained without parental care

The Family Code will regulate new methods of protecting the children that remained without parental care. The Parliament adopted relevant amendments to the legislation in first reading on April 10, Info-Prim Neo reports. The amendments were mainly introduced to chapter 17 of the Family Code – “Detection and Placement of Children that Remained without Parental Care”, which is to be modified and will be named “Detection, Supervision and Forms of Protecting the Children that Remained Without Parental Care”. According to Minister of Social Protection, Family and Child Galina Balmos, the introduction of amendments was determined by the situation of the children that remained without parental care, by the launch of the reform of the residential childcare system and by the necessity of quicker adjusting the secondary legislation in the area. Given the large number of children placed in state residential institutions (about 12,000), the authorities began to implement new services for preventing the separation of children from parents (day services) and protection forms that are alternative to boarding schools (professional parental assistance, non-state temporary placement centers etc.). But these forms are not regulated by the Family Code, the minister explained. The amendments bring new elements into the legislation. If adopted, they will guarantee the right to the protection of child not only against abuse, but also against corporal punishment. The definition of the child that remained without parental care is supplemented with the word “abandon” in order to better define this frequently met category of children which is not yet stipulated in the Family Code. The legislative amendments will enable the state authorities, not only the guardianship authorities, and the civil society to actively engage in the identification of children that remained without parental care, Galina Balmos said. The new stipulations lay emphasis on the necessity of organizing services for preventing the children and family from risks that can lead to the separation of the children from parents and for keeping them under observation. There were no such stipulations until present. Stress is also laid on setting out the family-type protection forms or forms similar to these. The present legislation puts empathies on the placement of the children in state residential institutions. The changes introduce new forms of protection, but allow placing the children in both private and state childcare institutions. The stipulations of the Family Code are adjusted to the minimum international standards on quality that allow placing only seven and not more children in family-type children’s homes. At the same time, the amendments propose equalizing the matrimonial age of men and women to 18. The Parliament’s legal commission for appointments and immunities recommended thoroughly analyzing this stipulation, taking into consideration Moldova’s specific features and the existent statistics. The bill is to be adopted by the parliamentary majority in second reading.