March 11, 2016, 2 a.m.
Among internally displaced persons, there are frequent questions about children entering the temporarily occupied territory of Donbas, in particular in the absence of one of the parents at the checkpoint
Among internally displaced persons, there are frequent questions about the entry of children to the temporarily occupied territory of Donbas, in particular in the absence of one of the parents at the checkpoint.
According to subpara..1.1 of the Temporary Procedure for Controlling the Movement of Persons, Vehicles and Goods (Goods) across the Contact Line within Donetsk and Luhansk Regions, approved by the order of the Anti-Terrorist Center at the SSU dated 12.06.2015 No. 415og , entry into the uncontrolled territory of children under the age of 16 is subject to the requirements of the Rules for Crossing the State Border by Citizens of Ukraine, approved by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine dated 27.01.1995 No. 57.
In turn, clause 4 of the aforementioned Rules stipulates that citizens under the age of 16, accompanied by one of the parents or other persons authorized by one of the parents with a notarized consent, may leave Ukraine with the notarized consent of the other parent. In particular, the child's departure is allowed without the notarized consent of the other parent:
If the other parent is a foreigner or stateless person, as evidenced by the entry about the father in the child's birth certificate;
upon presentation of one of the following documents (original or notarized copy)
death certificate of the other parent;
a court decision on deprivation of parental rights of the other parent;
a court decision recognizing the other parent as missing;
a court decision recognizing the other parent as incapacitated;
a court decision granting permission for a citizen under the age of 16 to leave Ukraine without the consent and accompaniment of the other parent;
a child's birth certificate issued by the civil registry office (if the child's paternity is not established and the child is accompanied by a single mother).
In addition, it should be noted that according to Article 2 of the Law of Ukraine "On the Procedure for Departure from and Entry into Ukraine of Citizens of Ukraine", the documents granting the right to leave/enter include, in particular, a passport of a citizen of Ukraine for traveling abroad and a child's travel document. A child's travel document is issued by the internal affairs authority at the child's place of residence (stay).
At present, there is a court practice of satisfying claims of legal representatives of children for permission to repeatedly enter and leave the area of the anti-terrorist operation to the uncontrolled territory of Ukraine across the contact line without the consent of one of the parents on the basis of the above-mentioned legal provisions (an example of a relevant court decision: http://reyestr.court.gov.ua/Review/55388123).
For practical issues related to the exercise of their rights, IDPs can contact the partners of the project "Protection of IDPs' Rights in Ukraine - Legal Aid, Information Campaigns and Digital Tools" implemented by the All-Ukrainian Coalition forLegal Aid Provision with the support of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) in Volyn, Dnipropetrovs'k, Ivano-Frankivsk, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Rivne, Kharkiv, Kherson, Khmelnytsky and Chernihiv regions.