The Government of the Russian Federation has submitted its fourth and fifth combined report on the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (dated 3rd June 2011), which is due to be examined by the Committee on the Rights of the Child at its 65th Session, taking place between 13-31 January 2014.
This documents provides the care-related sectiions of the report.
Of particular note:
116. The activities of the foster family, which is a form of bringing up children deprived of parental care that has been developing rapidly, are regulated by an agreement between the foster parents and the tutorship and guardianship authorities. From 2007 to 2009 the number of foster families rose from 22,200 to 40,500, and the number of children deprived of parental care who have been placed in such families grew from 38,600 to 68,000.
125. In the period 2003–2009 work continued on the operation of a State database for children deprived of parental care. At the end of 2009, there were 662,300 children in this category. In 2009, 73.2 per cent of children deprived of parental care were adopted by Russian nationals and 26.8 per cent by foreign nationals.
137. The Federal Act on the Fundamentals of Social Services for the Public establishes the framework for the regulation of social services and the creation of a network of institutions to provide welfare, medical, psychological, legal and social services to assist the social adaptation and rehabilitation of persons in difficult situations. Social services for victims of violence are provided by social rehabilitation centres for juveniles, centres of social assistance for families and children, shelters for children and adolescents, rehabilitation centres for children and adolescents with special needs, centres for helping children deprived of parental care, educational and psychological support centres, hotline centres for emergency psychological assistance, offices working with families and children in social service centres, 22 crisis centres for women and 3 for men, 120 crisis offices for women, and 23 shelters for women and underage children that offer emergency assistance, including welfare, medical, legal and social adaptation and rehabilitation services and psychological support.
151. In 2009 there were 518,900 children with disabilities in the Russian Federation under 18 years of age, or 105,400 fewer than in 2003. The child disability rate stood at 190.6 per 10,000 (195.8 in 2007). The largest number of children with disabilities are in the age group 10 to 14: 32 per cent. The main illnesses that lead to a disability are congenital anomalies (23 per cent), psychological and behavioural disorders (20 per cent) and illnesses of the nervous system (18 per cent). These three disabilities are also observed in the group of persons who renew their disabled status.
152. In 2009 there were 148 boarding schools accommodating 22,300 children (as against 152 for 28,900 children in 2003) and 1,272 boarding schools accommodating 142,400 children with special needs, including 219 orphanages for 20,500 children with disabilities (as against 217 for 25,400 children with disabilities in 2003).
153. In the constituent entities there are 283 rehabilitation establishments for children with disabilities and 631 rehabilitation units at social service institutions for families and children and children’s boarding schools. In 2009 social service institutions for families and children provided assistance to more than 332,000 families with children with special needs.
183. In 2009, 3,235 institutions provided social services for families and children (as against 3,080 at the beginning of 2003), including 793 social rehabilitation centres for juveniles, 519 social assistance centres for families and children, 350 shelters for children and adolescents, 283 rehabilitation centres for children and adolescents with special needs, 15 centres for children deprived of parental care, 16 educational and psychological support centres, 3 telephone hotline centres for psychological assistance, 330 offices working with families and children in social service centres, 778 offices working with families and children in integrated social service centres and 127 other facilities. Establishments providing social services for families and children have 1,564 in-house departments and 1,003 day-care centres, 1,690 family education groups, 631 offices for the rehabilitation of children with special needs, 1,173 offices for the prevention of child neglect and 433 telephone hotlines. In 2009, 4,390,700 families and 6,465,700 children were beneficiaries of social services, and social service establishments for families and children provided various forms of social services more than 192 million times. Notwithstanding the slight decline in 2009 in the number of educational and psychological support centres, the number of social and psychological services rendered grew by 15 per cent.
242. In 2009 there were 61 special closed reform schools in the Russian Federation and 36 special open reform schools for instructing and rehabilitating juveniles between 11 and 18 years of age who have committed socially dangerous acts but are not subject to criminal liability or release by a court. That same year, there were 3,300 juveniles in special closed reform schools, 1,600 (45 per cent) aged 11 to 14 and 1,800 (55 per cent) older than 14. There were 2,900 children and adolescents aged 8 to 18 in special open reform schools. The age of juveniles in open reform schools has declined: in 2009, 871 children, or 29 per cent, were between 8 and 14 years of age, and 2,063, or 70 per cent, were older than 14.
