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Children's ombudsman receives 5,000 requests for help in 2013

Most appeals, registering 17.8 percent, referred to children’s housing rights, a five percent fall on the year before

Children's ombudsman Pavel Astakhov ITAR-TASS/Yuri Mashkov

Children's ombudsman Pavel Astakhov

© ITAR-TASS/Yuri Mashkov

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MOSCOW, January 16. /ITAR-TASS/. Nearly 5,000 appeals for help reached Russia’s children’s rights ombudsman last year.

Fifty-eight percent of the 4,886 requests came from minors’ parents, followed by 11.3 percent from other relatives and nearly 11 percent from elsewhere, Pavel Astakhov told an Itar-Tass news conference. The total was 7.4 percent up on the year before, he said.

Russia’s Central Federal District ranked first by the number of appeals. Officials logged 1,768 requests, a 13 percent increase on 2012. Most came from residents of Moscow and the Moscow region (674 and 343 requests), followed by Voronezh, Vladimir, Ryazan and Yaroslavl.

Most appeals, registering 17.8 percent, referred to children’s housing rights, a five percent fall on the year before.

These included questions of housing improvements, legality of housing transactions, eviction in the event of house demolition, non-recognition of children’s rights to housing, and protection of housing rights of orphaned children and those without parental support.

Appeals for legal assistance ranked second, their number down by 20 percent, Astakhov said. These were followed by issues of guardianship, trusteeship, adoption and patronage, their number up by 49 percent.

Requests for inter-country adoption rose 67 percent in 2013.

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