Prague, March 10 (CTK) – The labour and social affairs and foreign ministers, Michaela Marksova and Lubomir Zaoralek (both Social Democrats, CSSD), would like to meet President Milos Zeman to debate the cases of Czech children taken away from their parents in Norway, Marksova told CTK yesterday.
They would also like to touch upon the draft intergovernmental treaty with Norway on the proceedings of children’s protection.
Possible draft treaties between Norway and the Czech Republic stirred up a dispute between the Presidential Office and Zaoralek a few days ago.
Zeman announced that he had agreed on the treaty’s wording with Zaoralek, but he had denied it.
Marksova pointed out that the Norwegian authorities had taken three Czech children from their parents in the past six years, while one had been returned to the family in the meantime.
“In Britain, it is almost 200 children. I ask why the president focuses on Norway and says nothing about Britain. There are also other countries where more Czech children were taken away from their parents than in Norway,” Marksova said.
The reasons for taking the children from their biological parents are the same as they would be in the Czech Republic. The respective authority assesses the situation and decides that the children cannot stay in the family since it would threaten their lives or health, Marksova added.
The date of a meeting with Zeman has not been set yet, Zaoralek’s spokeswoman Michaela Lagronova said.
“The new draft treaty does not deal with the release of children [to their parents], but focuses on their social and legal protection,” she said.
The Foreign Ministry’s lawyers have analysed the draft treaty and sent the documents to the Labour and Social Affairs Ministry.
Zeman’s bilateral treaty was drafted in cooperation with supporters of the families of the children taken away from their parents by the Norwegian Child Welfare Service (Barnevernet).
“It is based on international treaties and respects them,” MP Jitka Chalankova (TOP 09), from the petition committee in support of these families, told CTK.
Zeman has already submitted his second draft treaty.
Under the first one, Czech children taken from their parents in Norway should be released to the Czech Republic and vice versa.
The current 18-page document describes how the Czech and Norwegian authorities should proceed in children’s cases.
They would have to inform the other state about the launching of proceedings immediately, and its institutions could join the negotiations if the parents wished it.
Cultural differences or different ways of upbringing should not be reasons for taking children from their parents.
However, in Norway, for instance, corporal punishment of children is qualified as a crime, while in the Czech Republic it is not unlawful.
Moreover, according to the new draft treaty, children can be taken from their family only in exceptional cases if other measures taken to help the family failed. Then the children would be sent to their relatives or foster parents of the same citizenship, while siblings could not be divided for long.
Children should meet their parents at least twice a month for 12 hours and other relatives could also meet them. The foster parents should consult the biological parents on the children’s education and upbringing.
The parents should also agree with being stripped of their parental rights unless they committed “abominable acts.” Then the state from which the children come from should have to agree with their adoption.
The new treaty would apply even to the case that are being proceeded, while the closed cases would be re-assessed within a year.
The initiative was motivated by two cases in Norway.
Most recently, a nine-month-old girl was taken from her Czech mother and Norwegian father, but the authorities returned the baby to them later.
In a separate case, the Czech Republic tries to help a Czech mother, Eva Michalakova, whose small sons were take away from her in Norway in 2011 and who has been seeking their return.
