The Republic of Belarus Measures to Implement the Provisions of 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child (Oleg Starovoitov)

Раздел - "Международное право", рубрика - "Права человека"The article deals with the issues of implementation of the international norms on the rights of the child, which are contained in the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child, into the legal system of the Republic of Belarus. These norms are realized in Belarus through harmonization of national legislation with the provisions of the Convention, establishment of national agencies to monitor the observance of international legal obligations and to provide administrative protection to the rights of children. Court and administrative practices are also brought into accordance with the country's international legal obligations. Belarus has adopted a number of normative legal acts, regulating the rights of the child. It has started creating the legal base to protect these. At the same time the legislation does not quite reflect the approach of comprehensive protection of the rights of the child fixed in the Convention. In particular, no precise legal fixing has been given to the principle of considering the best interests of the child. The following directions in legislation can be identified which require further regulation: problems of violence and abuse of children, sexual or economic exploitation, the issues of social orphanhood, health protection (in particular, safeguarding of children from accidents and hazards, the right to ecological health), creation of the system ofjuvenile justice and so on. Besides, the absence of an efficient independent mechanism of legal protection of children is also a certain drawback. The structures, traditional for Belarus, whose competence covers certain issues of children's rights provision (education agencies, health care establishments, social care, guardianship institutions, juvenile delinquency commissions), do not embrace the whole range of the rights of children and are not able to realize the comprehensive approach to the protection of their rights. The article emphasizes the expediency of creating the office of a special commissioner on the rights of the child, which could complement the existing forms and means of providing the rights of children as an independent national mechanisms of the protection of the rights of children. The author singles out certain measures of legal and organizational character which are necessary to take in Belarus for effective realization of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. They include perfecting national legislation as to the conformity to the principles and provisions of the Convention and creation of an efficient mechanism of provision of the necessary protection of the rights of children with the introduction of the institution of a special commissioner on the rights of the child