In Russia, special attention is paid to protecting the interests of minors . In addition to children's ombudsmen, commissions for minors and the protection of their rights ( CLC) operate in the regions . These structures are permanent. Their legal status is enshrined in the Federal Law No. 120. The direct activity of the commissions is regulated by regional legislation.
Legal status of KDN
In the Federal Law No. 120, in the system for preventing neglect and juvenile delinquency in the first place, KDN and ZP are in the first place. The commissions coordinate and control the work of other bodies and institutions included in the system:
- Social Security.
- Management in the field of education.
- Guardianship and trusteeship.
- Healthcare management.
- For youth affairs.
- Internal affairs.
- Employment Services.
- Control of turnover of narcotic, psychotropic substances.
- The penal system ( special schools for "difficult children" , educational colonies, pre-trial detention centers).
The powers of the commissions are enshrined in the Federal Law No. 102, the Code of Administrative Offenses and other regulatory acts.
Legislative changes
In 1999, the aforementioned Federal Law No. 120 was introduced. One of the shortcomings of the regulatory act, experts consider the lack of a fixed three-tier system of KDN and PO . At the same time, having abolished the previous procedure for the formation of commissions by municipal authorities, the legislator did not propose new rules.
In 2013, Government Regulation No. 995 approved the Regulation on Commissions for Juvenile Affairs. Law No. 120, as well as the Decree, however, does not contain any mention of the Government KDN, i.e., of a body formed at the federal level. It is mentioned in Decree of 2006 No. 272.
CAO
The Code provides for three types of commissions: city, district and KDN areas in cities. In the Administrative Code, these bodies are qualified as collegial administrative bodies.
In 1 part of Art. 23.2 of the Code, in particular, it is said that city (district), as well as district in the cities of KDN are authorized to consider cases of offenses committed by adolescents, as well as cases of violations provided for in Articles 5.35, 20.22, 5.36, 6.23, 6.10 of the Code of Administrative Offenses.
In a number of municipalities, the prevention of child neglect and juvenile delinquency is carried out under the Code of Administrative Offenses, taking into account the established practice of resolving cases. This once again confirms the lack of a clear and unified mechanism for the implementation of the rights of minors.
Appointment
In functional terms, the CLC is a structure designed to implement measures to prevent crime, prevent juvenile neglect. The commissions are also called upon to promote and protect the rights of adolescents.
In essence, the KDN is an executive body, that is, an administrative structure endowed with state-power powers. It is on such institutions that the Constitution imposes an obligation to implement measures to ensure the rule of law, protect freedoms and rights of citizens, protect property, and fight crime. Given the seriousness and unity of the coordinating function in the work of the CPA and the RF , the dispersal of tasks between structures of different legal nature seems inappropriate.
According to some experts, commissions are not public or state bodies by nature. The authors believe that they cannot be attributed to any branch of government. KDN is a special entity with authority. However, their competence does not go beyond the prevention system. Accordingly, the commission can be considered as a body, but not related to state power. It is necessary to ensure the functioning of the prevention system, the organization of processes focused on the implementation of the tasks assigned to it.
Features of functioning
One of the directions of the work of the KND is executive and administrative activities. It manifests itself as part of the implementation of competence.
The activity is aimed at fulfilling the tasks assigned to the commissions set forth in presidential decrees, federal legislation, government resolutions, regulatory documents of the regional and municipal levels.
The main tasks include:
- Providing a unified approach to solving the problems of preventing juvenile delinquency in schools and other educational institutions.
- Protecting the interests and rights of adolescents throughout the Russian Federation.
Management tasks
The CDN system formed in the Russian Federation, carrying out intersectoral coordination, is the subject of management. The objects in the administrative-political and social spheres are the activities of institutions and bodies of the juvenile delinquency prevention system in schools , other educational institutions, and in the family. It includes:
- The implementation of measures to protect and restore the interests and rights of adolescents.
- Identification and elimination of conditions and circumstances conducive to the emergence of homelessness, neglect, and the commission of antisocial acts by minors.
Credentials
These include:
- Implementation of measures to coordinate the work of preventive institutions and bodies.
- Organization of control over the conditions of training, education, upkeep of adolescents, their treatment in special schools for "difficult children ", and other special educational institutions.
- Protection and restoration of interests and rights of adolescents.
- Identification and elimination of conditions conducive to the commission of illegal actions by parents and representatives of children.
On all issues within its competence, the KDN make decisions, the provisions of which are binding on state bodies, local authorities, institutions, enterprises, organizations regardless of their form of ownership, as well as citizens. Given the wide range of powers, it is impossible to agree with the opinion that the commissions do not belong to the system of executive power.
Principles of organization and activities
Lawyers distinguish 3 of their categories:
- General principles. These include democracy, publicity, and law.
- The principles of the formation of commissions. Among them are the unity of the preventive system, collegiality, state support for the activities of local authorities and public organizations, the responsibility of employees for violating the interests and rights of adolescents.
- Principles for the exercise of authority.
The latter include:
- Humane treatment of adolescents.
- Respect for the child on the part of the parents and other legal representatives.
- Confidentiality of information about a teenager, members of his family.
- Ensuring continuous interaction with parents and other legal representatives on issues related to the protection of the freedoms and rights of minors.
- Individual approach to raising a teenager.
Coordination activities
Multilevel coordination, interaction and cooperation of bodies are priority areas in the system of prevention of offenses and neglect of adolescents. This is due to the multiplicity of process entities, the common goals of the structures, the variety of functions and tasks, methods, forms of their implementation.
The need for coordination is caused primarily by the fact that educational and preventive work in the social sphere is carried out by various municipal, state, public organizations. Their activities have a multi-level, multi-purpose character.
The purpose of coordination is defined as the implementation of a state policy to prevent delinquency, neglect of adolescents, protect their interests and rights on the basis of legality, interaction, and coordination of all entities involved in the process, under the supervision of the CLC. The direct organizers of all this activity is the state.
Administrative jurisdictional activity
As part of its implementation, production is distinguished by:
- Cases of administrative violations.
- Complaints.
The jurisdictional powers of the CLC are comprehensive. This commissions differ from other subjects of administrative and jurisdictional activity.
Composition
The structure of the CPA includes: the chairman, his deputy (one or more), the executive secretary and members.
The commission may be attended by representatives of various bodies. As a rule, the CPA consists of the heads (deputy heads) of institutions and bodies of the prevention system, employees of other municipal and state bodies, and representatives of public and religious organizations. Members of the commission can be any citizen who has experience working with adolescents, deputies of representative bodies and other interested entities.
At the federal level, there is a Government KDN. The Chairperson of the Commission on Juvenile Affairs under the Government is Olga Golodets.
KDN work with minors - a very specific category of citizens. At the same time, the commissions have the authority to bring teenagers to administrative responsibility. All of these actions involve increased responsibility. In this regard, stringent requirements are imposed on the staff of the KDN. They relate not only to knowledge of legal issues, but also to the characteristics of the developmental psychology of behavior that deviates from the norm.
Individual preventive work with registered minors
In each institution and body included in the prevention system, an individual program for each adolescent should be developed. This document contains information about:
- The teenager and his family.
- The grounds and reasons for conducting individual preventive work with a minor registered .
- Action plan, responsible executors.
- The results of the work.
Dates of events are established, in accordance with the Federal Law No. 120, at the discretion of the entity that implements them. The landmarks are the periods:
- Necessary to provide social and other assistance to adolescents.
- Until the conditions and reasons that contributed to offenses, neglect, homelessness, antisocial actions of adolescents are eliminated.
- Necessary for the device of minors.
The deadline is established by law when:
- The citizen has reached the age of majority.
- The onset of other circumstances stipulated by law.
Among the latter, for example, include the imposition of punishments in the form of mandatory, corrective labor, probation with a probationary period. During the period of their serving, work is carried out with the teenager. As a rule, it is expressed in the form of conversations with difficult teenagers and their parents, regular verification of compliance with the requirements of the court or other authorized body.
The dynamics of individual work
As part of preventive activities, the causes and circumstances are determined in connection with which the adolescent is in socially dangerous conditions. These include:
- Biomedical factors. In particular, we are talking about a group of health, heredity, congenital pathologies, disorders in physical and mental development, conditions for the birth of a child, and so on.
- Socio-economic causes and conditions. These include the stay of a teenager in an incomplete or large family, a family without a home, with unemployed parents, with children from repeated or previous marriages, with parents leading an asocial lifestyle. Socio-economic prerequisites are also the teenager’s inability to live, suicide attempts, vagrancy, drug or alcohol use.
- Psychological factors. Among them are alienation from society, self-rejection, emotional instability, disruption of contacts with others, lack of positive results of social adaptation, negative influence of friends, etc.
- Pedagogical factors. These include the inability to cope with the academic load, poor performance, inadequacy of the conditions for educational activities to psychophysiological characteristics of adolescents, lack of interest in school subjects, etc.
As part of the preventive work, urgent problems of the child are identified, support and correction measures are developed.
Legislation gaps
Currently, there are many unresolved issues in the prevention of juvenile delinquency and their neglect. In most cases, they are caused by gaps in the current legislation.
According to many experts, at the official level, it is necessary to consolidate the competence of the CPA at each level, to determine their specific responsibilities and rights. An analysis of the activities of structures should be carried out, defects in their work should be identified, often leading to incompetent resolution of cases of offenses.
At the federal level, the procedure for the consideration of cases of KDN is not fixed.
Federal law should provide not only protection, but also protection of the interests and rights of adolescents in the investigation of materials on offenses and application of measures of influence.
Conclusion
In practice, the CPA and the RF cannot be called the coordinating bodies to the full. Commissions today carry out only control functions.
As an analysis of the work of the CLC in Russia shows, far from always authorized structures monitor and possess information about suicides among adolescents, sometimes information about ill-treatment of minors in the family is not checked. Many KDN consider the implementation of administrative and punitive functions a priority in their activities. The key tasks of the commissions are ensuring coordination of the work of institutions and bodies of the prevention system, protecting and safeguarding the interests and rights of adolescents. Some employees evaluate their activities only by the number of materials reviewed and decisions made to bring children or their parents to administrative responsibility.
The work of the commissions should bring results. For this, of course, legislative adjustment is necessary not only at the federal, but also at the regional and municipal levels.