President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev: I have decided to create the position of Commissioner for Children's Rights in our country, despite the fact that we already have a system for the protection of human rights and children’s rights. The protection of children’s rights is a very sensitive and at the same time very important area of social life that needs to be dealt with separately and have its own commissioner. That is why I have signed an executive order to this effect.
We have already spoken about how this position will function and discussed how better to protect the rights of the child. In accordance with my order, the Commissioner’s remit will involve several areas: to acquire materials, to take the necessary decisions about all the establishments and organisations in our country that deal with the children’s rights, and to provide expertise on a whole range of other matters related to the protection of the rights of children citizens of the Russian Federation.
In view of what we have discussed, I have decided to appoint you to the post of Presidential Commissioner for Children’s Rights and I would like to congratulate you on this appointment. I hope you will be successful in your endeavours. This is a difficult job because it requires a large spiritual investment – you can’t just go through the motions in such a position – and, at the same time, it requires the energy necessary to safeguard the interests of children in cases where it is deemed necessary to offer them extra protection. So I hope that you will work in this way and I am counting on you to be very active in this post.
Alexei Golovan: Thank you, Mr President. I believe that the establishment of a Presidential Commissioner will be an important element in the child protection system, an issue that you have been very involved in recently. We will do everything possible to make this position a truly effective, functional one, an open position, one that will not only help to protect individual children but will also address systemic issues related to the protection of the child. Creating such an institution helps us comply with our international obligations and it is very important that this is happening this year, the twentieth anniversary of the adoption of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which the whole world is celebrating and which has occasioned important activities in our country. We will try to live up to your expectations in every way.
Dmitry Medvedev: Good. We will not only be celebrating, we will also be hard at work and, I repeat, I am counting on your vigorous and coordinated efforts on this subject. Thank you.