Protecting the future, supporting rights!

Every year, November 20 is World Children's Day, proclaimed by the United Nations. This day is dedicated to activities aimed at ensuring the well-being of children around the world. The date was not chosen by chance: on November 20, 1989, the UN Assembly adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child, obliging all countries to ensure a good life and a happy childhood for children. The UN General Assembly proposed to celebrate this holiday in the form and on the day that each state recognizes as appropriate for itself. In Russia, this date is celebrated as the All-Russian Day of Legal Aid to Children.

As part of the All-Russian Day of Legal Aid to Children, a joint event of the Commission of the Public Chamber of the Samara Region on demographic, social and family policy, the Chamber of Advocates of the Samara Region and the Public Organization of Foster Families of the Samara Region was held on November 20, 2024.

Representatives of educational institutions and social centers of the Samara Region, pupils of boarding schools, and representatives of foster families joined the event via videoconference.

Many questions, both individual and general, were received.

The Chamber of Advocates of the Samara Region was represented by Vice-President of the PASO Borodin Alexey Viktorovich, member of the PASO Council Yeryomina Yulia Valeryevna, and member of the PASO Qualification Commission Shamanova Ksenia Viktorovna.

Alexey Viktorovich Borodin shared his positive experience of interaction in legal mentoring, spoke about advocacy practice in matters of protecting children and families, and emphasized the importance of creating information materials containing judicial and best law enforcement practices of the Chamber of Advocates on issues of protecting the rights and interests of children.

Yulia Valeryevna Yeryomina spoke about legal mentoring and the practice of implementing interaction with the Center for Assistance to Children Left Without Parental Care.

The lawyers shared that they are most often contacted on issues of implementing the housing rights of children in boarding schools, and there is already a positive result of work in the courts.

It was decided to prepare written explanations for the questions that were not considered within the framework of the event.

Participation in such events gives an understanding that answering one question does not at all mean solving the problem that has arisen for the child or the center where these children live. Systematic assistance is important.

One of the options proposed by lawyers a year ago and implemented by them in practice is legal mentoring. Its essence boils down to the fact that a legal mentor in the person of a specific lawyer is assigned to the center for the detention of children. For example, the Frolova Center has been cooperating with lawyer Eremina Yu.V. for a year, which has allowed her to achieve several positive court decisions in the interests of children.

As the chairperson of the commission, Svetlana Ivanovna Poldamasova, emphasized: “The positive experience of legal mentoring, interaction with the Radost charity foundation within the framework of post-boarding school support, the developments of the Union of Women of the Samara Region in matters of public mentoring should be widely disseminated. Boarding schools should use the capabilities of the Chamber of Advocates of the Samara Region and find points of interaction in the interests of protecting the rights of pupils and graduates of these institutions.”

In agreement with the Public Chamber, all methodological recommendations and answers to questions prepared by lawyers will be posted on the website of the chamber.

PASO Press Center