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3 January 2017
Jan Simonsen:
Poland with new legislation to protect Polish children against Norwegian Barnevern
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This article was first published in Norwegian, as Polen med ny lov for å beskytte polske barn mot norsk barnevern, on Frie Ytringer (Free Opinions), Jan Simonsen's blog, on 3 January 2017.
It is translated and published here with the author's kind consent.
Translation: Marianne Haslev Skånland
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The Polish Ministry of Justice is in the process of formulating a new law with the purpose of helping Polish parents affected by actions of child protection agencies in other countries than Poland. During a recent press conference the Undersecretary in the Ministry of Justice, Michael Wojcik, announced the new steps, and spoke particularly about problems with Norway, Britain and Germany, according to a report on the Polish web portal niezalezna(1).
The Undersecretary of State pointed to the fact that open borders with free movement of labour in Europe has led to a situation with many Poles working and living in countries in which children are subject to abuse from the authorities of these countries. The new legislation aims to give Polish parents and their lawyers the necessary support in this connection.
The Undersecretary of State regretted that Polish authorities have all too long been too passive. He promised that this will cease. "In order to secure Polish parents and their children efficient protection, the Ministry of Justice has developed a draft for legislation which will clearly strenghten Polish authorities and secure the judicial means necessary to respond to all cases of children being being taken away from Polish parents, or to threats of such action", he said, promising that both the Polish Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Polish embassies will take action. "The purpose is to secure the full implementation of children's rights", said Undersecretary of State Wojcik.
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(1)
Koniec z uprowadzeniami rodzicielskimi. Polscy rodzice otrzymają wsparcie
niezalezna, 28 December 2016
(2)
Prawa dzieci w postępowaniach transgranicznych
rp.pl/Rodzina, 29 December 2016
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Comment:
The best thing that could happen would be if more countries joined Poland's attempt to prevent Western style child protection from carrying on and even expanding their activities. The present time seems good: Norway is under heavy criticism from The Council of Europe and in the EU Parliament, and at least 7 child protedtion cases against Norway are coming up in the European Court of Human Rights shortly.
It seems relevant in connection with Simonsen's article about Poland to draw a parallel to what a group in India, ably led by Suranya Aiyar, in its Petition to the Indian National Human Rights Commission in 2012, that the Commission should urge the Indian Government to do. Elements much resemble what Poland is planning. Cf especially the points on p 7 here:
Humanitarian Crisis for Indian children and their families in confiscatory child care proceedings abroad
12 October 2012
At the same time, we should note a very positive feature of the Polish initiative in that Norway is not alone in being mentioned as giving Polish families trouble. Western type child protection is out of sensible and humanitarial control in several countries. It is not the case of unfortunate single mistakes, it is due to a whole ideology which is indoctrinated into social workers in their training and practice.
Marianne Haslev Skånland
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