One of the most important topics on the agenda of the Ombudsman’s Office is the topic of children’s rights, said Ombudsman Juris Jansons at a meeting in the Saeima on the 20th of April.
He also stressed that he has discussed with “the government, the parliament and Ministry of Welfare why changes are necessary in this sector”.
Jansons explained that the procedure to combine orphan courts concluded at the start of 2022. The change is related to the administrative territorial reform, which caused the number of orphan courts to go down in Latvia. “Additionally, in order to ensure a quality decision-making processes best suited to children’s interests, amendments passed to the Law on Orphan’s and Custody Courts in 2021 introduced qualification requirements for judges of orphan courts,” said the ombudsman, adding that the adopted changes and improvements have not provided the desired results.
Jansons also stressed that together with the issue of the quality of work done by orphan courts, the topic of ethical problems surfaced as well.
“The time has come to compose family courts, so that they take over decision-making function. Municipal social services can take over other functions during the transition period,”
said the ombudsman.
He also reminded the Ombudsman’s Office had previously suggested changing the name “orphan court”, “because they are not courts – rather municipal institutions that work with more narrow social topics than social services”.
“On top of that, they [orphan courts] can also make arbitrary decisions when it comes to taking children from their families, as well as impose various rules for parent-child meetings and so on. This is why these institutions or structures are not part of the court justice system. This often confuses and misleads people who stand before orphan courts to resolve family-related problems,” said Jansons.
State secretary to the Ministry of Welfare Diāna Jakaiste told BNN that as a result of the “municipal reform” the number of orphan courts has gone down from 117 to 43. Jakaiste also said this drop is one of the aspects meant to help improve the work done by orphan courts. “Fewer orphan courts means it is easier to follow their work and ensure uniform action is similar situations,” said the ministry’s state secretary.
This is not the first time when orphan courts and their work has ended up on the bad side of “society and politicians”. One of the biggest problems of the orphan courts system in the eyes of residents is that “it is an old and outdated system”. On top of that, many residents believe “the competence and professionalism of many orphan courts’ representatives is questionable”.
Minister of Welfare Evika Siliņa admits the orphan courts system is flawed. However, she believes it should be improved rather than liquidated, so that its workers can become children’s rights experts.
When asked if the ministry has ever considered liquidating orphan courts, especially when looking at other countries’ experience in protection of children’s rights and criticisms from the ombudsman and society,
Siliņa told BNN that “looking back, Latvia initially had orphan and parish courts. Now, after the reform, Latvia has only orphan courts left.
But the time has tome to change the content and the entire point, which is something we are trying to accomplish step by step.”
The minister also stressed she plans to meet with the ombudsman to discuss the problems with the work done by orphan courts. She said she agrees with Jansons that “orphan courts are not courts, rather municipal institutions, and their names do not reflect their main objectives”. “They are responsible for guardianship and trusteeship institutes in Latvia, the protection of the personal and property interests of the child or a person under guardianship, the protection of the child and the family, as well as other child and family-related responsibilities,” said Siliņa.
Saeima deputy Ieva Brante mentioned during debates that “an orphan court is an institution that resolves sensitive family-related issues, even conflicting issues, but not unique ones and not the kind for which it is not possible to find professional and smart solutions through the method of appeal”.
According to her, the ombudsman’s proposal to create family courts would be a good way to ensure the best possible decisions in the interests of the children.
Brante invited the legislator to pay attention to the ombudsman’s proposal and work with professionals to discuss the possible implementation of this solution.
Jakaiste stressed that “Latvia’s child rights protection system is in a state of constant improvement”.
Like the ombudsman, Jakaiste said the first steps towards improving the orphan courts system were made in 2021.
This year it is planned for the Association of Orphan’s and Custody Court Workers to improve the orphan courts code of ethics, said Jakaiste. The Ministry of Justice proposes relieving orphan courts of their notary function. This particular set of amendments needs to be approved by the Saeima first.
Financial support is planned for municipalities to provide regular supervision over orphan court workers and improve the professional capacity of orphan courts.
Ministries are planned to compose an orphan courts work evaluation system in order to follow workers’ knowledge and professionalism.
The Ministry of Welfare believes this system will help identify problems with insufficient knowledge of employees and help create a professional training programme.
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