The package of bills aimed at "strengthening the institution of the family", made senators, led by Elena Mizulina. They believe that the current legislation sacrifices the family “the rights and interests of the individual”, which leads to excessive interference of the authorities in the upbringing process and undermines traditional foundations.
Mizulina offers satisfy conservatives accusingly 's juvenile justice system, are considered acceptable "reasonable" physical abuse against children and seek to protect the younger generation from the "gay propaganda."
From the point of view of human rights defenders, the innovations will give indulgence to bad parents , and will also become a new tool for discrimination against gays, lesbians and especially transgender people.
Family versus state
Senators are going to limit the guardianship in the right to select children who are allegedly at risk in the family. Today, social workers can place a child in a hospital or shelter for a week without a court order. The grounds for this usually are ill-treatment, neglect and other risks to life, health or development of the child.
The practice meets with an ambiguous attitude in society. On the one hand, attempts by government agencies to take children away from oppositionists , disabled people , the poor or for some reason seemingly unusual parents receive a negative response. On the other hand, cases of domestic violence are attracting more and more attention , such as the case of the Khachaturian sisters , who killed their father , which stirred the public up. The tragedy is explained by the fact that those around them, including the school and the guardianship authorities, “did not notice” the abuse of girls.
Initiatives of Mizulina and a competing bill by Andrey Klishas propose to take the children away from their parents only by a court decision (if there is no reason to believe that the death of a child “may occur within a few hours”).
It is also proposed to expand the rights of children of blood relatives. Parents who, for any reason, are unable to raise a child, will be able to transfer it to other family members for temporary protection.
The judicial procedure for the seizure of children , combined with a detailed list of reasons for this, could be useful, says Ekaterina Tyagai , head of the department of family and housing law at Moscow State Law Academy .
However, it is unclear whether overwhelmed and unprepared for such a task, courts in such a short time frame will be able to make more correct decisions than the guardianship authorities. At the same time, other initiatives of senators can negate the positive effect of the innovation, the lawyer adds.
Demonstrative homophobia
Shortly before voting on the amendments to the Constitution, the Federal News Agency released a propaganda video intimidating voters with the prospect of giving up orphans to be raised by homosexual couples. Mizulina's project promises to finally save Russians from worries about this.
"The bill stops the practice of marriage between persons of the same sex, including a sex change, and therefore, the adoption of such pairs of children", - quotes about Mizulina TASS.
The Family Code , and now the updated Constitution, defines marriage as a "union of a man and a woman," therefore, with the adoption of the amendments, little will actually change in the lives of homosexual couples, Natalya Zvyagina believes .
The prohibition to be adoptive parents, guardians or trustees will only affect homosexual spouses who have married abroad. However, the problem of such couples who want to raise a child, there are today.
Adoption / adoption of children by one foster parent is not formally prohibited, but such applications are rarely approved. Therefore, single adoptive parents (including homosexuals) are forced to enter into fictitious marriages in order to take a child from an orphanage. This will continue to be practiced, the human rights activist believes.
“De jure, these bills are about nothing. This is a political statement that the state continues to prioritize the thesis: “LGBT people will not pass,” says the director of Amnesty International in Russia .
Other experts disagree with this assessment, noting that the amendments could greatly harm transgender people.
Transgender is illegal
Mizulina's package prohibits registry offices from making corrections about gender changes in metrics and birth certificates. This will have far-reaching consequences for transsexuals, said Tatiana Glushkova, a lawyer at the Memorial Human Rights Center and one of the coordinators of the Transgender Legal Aid Project.
"This is being adopted with the aim, it is stated," to prevent same-sex marriage." But the authors [of the draft laws] do not understand that the transgender transition is not a change of documents in order for, say, a woman to marry a woman. By making a transgender transition (in particular, undergoing surgery and taking hormones) , a person begins to live in accordance with the gender with which he associates himself ... Naturally, he wants to lead a normal life, for example, to enter into a heterosexual marriage. Now they are being told: these marriages will be considered homosexual for you, ”she explains.
Now people who have made such a transition can change their passports and other documents. This gives them the right to marry (heterosexual in relation to their new gender status). Unlike same-sex unions, such partnerships are registered in Russia , although often with scandals .
Mizulina's amendments will allow the registry office employees to demand from the newlyweds not only passports, but also unchangeable birth certificates. As a result, transgender people will not be able to marry a carrier of the opposite “passport” sex (and, possibly, in no marriage at all). Already existing “trans-families”, to which the protection of foundations, apparently, does not extend will also be under threat.
“The bill amends Article 14 of the Family Code, stating that no marriage between persons of the same sex is allowed. There is article 27 of the same code, which says that a marriage can be invalidated if it is contracted in violation, including article 14. It can be interpreted so that previously contracted marriages must be declared invalid, or it is possible that on at the time of the marriage, the sex of the spouses was different, ”notes the Memorial lawyer.
Gender information will also be required from potential guardians.
“It is better to send a child to an orphanage than to a same-sex couple,” summarizes the meaning of the innovation, Ekaterina Tyagai.
Transgender parents are still trying to deprive their children of their rights , forcing them to emigrate to other countries. The bills will legitimize this practice, turning “trances” into second-class people, Glushkova said.
Tradition versus rights
Mizulina's package carries the same ideological message as Putin's amendments to the Constitution about God, ancestors and the Russian people , Ilya Budraitskis believes .
“Within the framework of conservative ideology, the family plays a key role, not only as a unit of society, but also as a metaphor for the state ... [where] obedience and authority are associated not with a law that has a rational basis, but with a feeling, an attitude of belonging, the“ natural ”power of an elder over junior ... I think this is the idea underlying this bill, which corresponds to the general conservative line of the state, ”the political scientist notes.