Kuznetsova urges looking into grounds for depriving the married couple that attended Moscow protest on July 27 of parental rights
MOSCOW. Aug 6 (Interfax) - It is necessary to look into the legal grounds for the lawsuit in which prosecutors are claiming that the parents that brought a toddler to the unauthorized protest in Moscow on July 27 must be deprived of parental rights, Presidential Commissioner for Children's Rights Anna Kuznetsova said.
"Deprivation of parental rights is a measure of last resort that is taken if any parents who have committed an offence are ignorant of their guilt and reluctant to change their conduct or attitudes toward their child. It is important to understand legal grounds for this kind of lawsuit. At this point, we are trying to find out all the circumstances," the press service quoted Kuznetsova as saying in a statement received by Interfax.
"Involving minors in unsanctioned rallies, let alone using underage children as a 'shield' is unacceptable," Kuznetsova went on to say.
"It is obvious that during such events, the health or even the life of a child may be put at risk. Participants might include agents provocateurs whose behavior is unpredictable and may be dangerous for both children and adults. In this case any person, particularly a parent, involving children in rallies has to realize their responsibility for the health and security of their child, and the child's security is the most important," she said.
Kuznetsova expressed confidence that "competent authorities will determine what actually happened and then, certain conclusion may be made."
The Moscow Prosecutor's Office on Monday demanded that the married couple that had attended the July 27 unpermitted rally in Moscow with a one-year-old son be deprived of parental rights.
"During the rally, the parents handed their young child, who was helpless due to his age, to a third party and thus endangered the boy's life and health and inflicted physical and moral damage on him," the prosecution service said in a statement in Moscow on Tuesday.
"The couple abused their parental rights to the son's detriment," the statement said.
"The violations prompted a prosecutor to request a court to deprive the couple of their parental rights with regard to the young child under Part 1, Article 45 of the Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation," it said.