Protecting children’s rights and restoring the rights of child victims of violence, moral corruption, sexual assault and other criminal acts are the recognised action priorities for the federal and regional children’s rights commissioners.
Mr Astakhov noted at the meeting that although a number of essential legal amendments have been made to prevent criminal acts against minors and toughen penalties for such deeds, the situation nevertheless remains grave.
Mr Astakhov pointed at the shortage of qualified, specially trained child and adolescent psychologists and judicial experts to help rehabilitate child victims of violence and other crimes. The Commissioner also indicated substantial flaws in the current system for protecting children from crime, and made various proposals to set tougher criminal penalties for a number of particularly serious types of crimes against minors.