Prague, July 12 (CTK) – The Czech Foreign Ministry is going to send another diplomatic note to Norway concerning the case of a Czech mother, Eva Michalakova, whom Norwegian authorities stripped of parental rights to her two sons, its spokeswoman Irena Valentova told Czech Radio (CRo)’s news server on Wednesday.
She said the note would react to the granting of Norwegian citizenship to the elder son.
“Norway must respect that the boy is also a Czech citizen. In other words, Norway must respect the powers of Czech authorities in relation to its citizen, including the rules of the international legislation on consular protection that the Czech Republic provides for its citizens,” iRozhlas.cz server cited Valentova as saying.
The server writes that the Czech embassy in Oslo announced to the Foreign Ministry at the end of June that Norway’s immigration office informed it that Denis Michalak received Norwegian citizenship.
In 2011, the Norwegian child welfare service Barnevernet took Denis and David, now aged 12 and 8, away from their Czech parents on suspicion of abuse, neglect and physical maltreatment. The suspicion was not proved then, but the court considered the findings serious and decided to place the boys in foster families.
In 2015, Norwegian authorities stripped the mother of her parental rights, but left the father’s parental rights untouched. The mother’s appeals against the decision failed and she is preparing to address the European Court of Human Rights. She did this already once, but the Strasbourg court did not accept her complaint. Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka said the Czech Republic would support Michalakova in Strasbourg.
Three months ago, Sobotka said the Czech state would try to check in what conditions the Michalak brothers stay in Norway with foster parents and ask the Norwegian authorities for ensuring that the boys have links to the Czech environment and that they learn Czech.
Michalakova’s supporters and lawyers say she was stripped of her parental rights because she talked about her case to Czech media. CRo wrote previously that the Norwegian court concluded that the mother used media at the expense of the privacy of her sons.
Norwegian institutions do not comment on the case and information has only been provided by Michalakova’s supporters.
Some media and experts say it is impossible to form a clear opinion based on the stance of only one side to the dispute.
The Norwegian embassy in Prague previously wrote on its website that Norwegian institutions cannot react to incorrect claims because of their pledge of confidentiality and with respect to the protection of the boys’ privacy.
