During wartime it is required to promptly make decisions relating to children in an increasingly large number of cases.
Key objectives are to establish guardianship and care and to eliminate threats to children’s’ lives and health by placing them in family-type orphanages and/or foster families. Should it be impossible to provide a family type of care for children, they shall be transferred to institutions for orphans and children deprived of parental care and/or other institutions to ensure their temporary placement, relocation and evacuation both within Ukraine and abroad.
In addition to national legislation applicable under normal conditions, special regulations are being developed.
The following legislation has been adopted:
- Ordinance of the Cabinet of Ministers Number 349 as of March 22, 2022 which amended some Ordinances of the Cabinet of Ministers on protecting children’s rights during a state of emergency or martial law;
- Ordinance of the Cabinet of Ministers Number 385 as of March 27, 2022, which approved a procedure for temporary evacuation of children and persons living or enrolled in institutions of various types and forms of ownership and subordination for round-the-clock stay to provide conditions for their stay in Ukraine away from areas of active hostilities, or outside Ukraine.
International law is also applicable, particularly the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, ratified by the Law of Ukraine Number 2942-III as of January 10, 2002.
It becomes important to clearly define a child’s status as this directly affects the exercise and protection of their rights.
International law makes a distinction between the following categories of children: Children in difficult life circumstances, children separated from their families, orphans and children deprived of parental care.
This paper will address the status of orphans and children deprived of parental care.
A status of an orphan or a child deprived of parental care is a legal status, which gives a child the right to full state support and benefits provided by law. This status is confirmed by documents certifying circumstances because the child is considered to be deprived of parental care. (Article 1 of the Law of Ukraine “On Ensuring Organizational and Legal Conditions for Social Protection of Orphans and Children Deprived of Parental Care”).
Conditions for acquiring this legal status is the child’s loss of parental care. This may be the case in the following circumstances:
- Death of parents;
- Deprivation of parental rights;
- Taking children away from parents without deprivation of parental rights;
- Recognizing missing or incapable parents, or declaring them dead;
- Serving sentences by parents in places of imprisonment and/or their detention during the investigation;
- Searching parents by the National Police due to lack of information about their whereabouts;
- long-term illness of parents that prevents them from fulfilling their parental responsibilities;
- Separation of a child from family;
- Abandoned or homeless children (children whose parents have abandoned them or whose parents are unknown);
- Parents do not fulfill their parental responsibilities for reasons that cannot be determined in connection with a stay of parents in temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine and in areas of anti-terrorist operations; and,
- Parents take measures to ensure national security and defense and repel and deter Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.
It is the duty of specially authorized Guardianship and Custody Authorities to make decisions relating to legal status of an orphan and/or a child deprived of parental care.
An entity that drafts relevant documents: The State Children’s Service
Time period for drawing up documents to confirm a child’s legal status: Within two months
Documents collected by the State Children’s Service pertaining to each case:
- A child’s birth certificate; and,
- Documents certifying circumstances under which the child was left without parental care.
A decision relating to granting legal status shall be made by one of the following bodies:
- A district state administration, or a city district state administration in the cities of Kyiv and Sevastopol; an executive body formed at a council of a city or a city district (if a city district council has been formed), or an executive body of a village, settlement, or amalgamated territorial community council:
- At the place of origin of a child;
- At the request of the State Children’s Service.
The decision shall contain the following information:
- A child’s first and last names and patronymic name;
- A child’s date of birth;
- Circumstances under which a child was left without parental care;
- Documents confirming these circumstances; and,
- Form of placement of the child.
For each child, an accounting and statistical card shall be created. A card shall contain the child’s and his or her heredity; health; place of origin; place of residence; data on parents, brothers, sisters and close relatives; data on property or housing in which a child lived or which is owned by him or her, or which is assigned to the child on other grounds; information about institutions and families where the child was supported and raised; the plan and results of social support of the child; and, information about the child’s development.
| Legal Status | Legal Status Recipients | Documentary Proof |
| An orphan child | Children whose parents have died | Each parent’s death certificate |
| A child deprived of parental care | Children whose parents are deprived of parental rights | A court decision |
| A child deprived of parental care | Сhildren taken from their parents without deprivation of parental rights | A court decision |
| A child deprived of parental care | Children whose parents are missing | A court decision |
| A child deprived of parental care | Children whose parents have been declared dead by a court | A death certificate issued by a registry office |
| A child deprived of parental care | Children whose parents have been declared incapable | A court decision |
| A child deprived of parental care | Children whose parents are serving prison sentences | A court verdict |
| A child deprived of parental care | Children whose parents are detained during criminal proceedings | A decision of the investigating judge |
| A child deprived of parental care | Children whose parents are wanted by the National Police due to lack of information about their whereabouts | A court decision or certificate from the National Police on the search for parents and lack of information about their whereabouts |
| A child deprived of parental care | A child whose parents’ long-term illness of parents prevents them from fulfilling their parental duties | A conclusion issued by a health care establishment’s medical advisory board on the presence of a disease in the father or mother, issued in accordance with the procedure for issuing a conclusion of the health care establishment’s medical advisory board approved by an Order of the Ministry of Healthcare Number 981 dated November 18, 2013 |
| A child deprived of parental care | An abandoned child whose parents are unknown; a child abandoned in a maternity hospital or other health care institution; or, a child not picked up by parents or other relatives in a maternity hospital | A report drawn up in accordance with the Order of the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Internal Affairs Number 1095/1239 dated December 17, 2013 On Approval of Forms of Documents about a Child Abandoned in a Maternity Hospital or Other Health Care Institution or a Child Refused to be Picked Up by Parents or Other Relatives, or Abandoned and/or Found and the Instructions on Completing Document Templates. |
| A child deprived of parental care | Children whose parents cannot fulfill their parental duties for reasons that are difficult to determine due to the parents’ stay in temporarily occupied territories or in an area of anti-terrorist operation or national security and defense operation aimed at repulsing and deterring Russia’s armed aggression | A report drawn up by the State Children’s Service in the form established by Annex 11 to the Ordinance of the Cabinet of Ministers number 866 dated September 24, 2008 |
| A child deprived of parental care | Children separated from their families, recognized as refugees or persons in need of additional protection, in accordance with the Law of Ukraine “On Refugees and Persons in Need of Additional or Temporary Protection” | Written information prepared by the territorial body of the State Migration Service confirming a search for a child’s parents or other legal representatives and/or lack of information on their whereabouts under Ordinance Number 866 of the Cabinet of Ministers as of September 24, 2008; Ordinance Number 832 adopted by the Cabinet of Ministers as of November 16, 2016 to approve the procedure for interagency coordination for state and local self-government bodies to identify children separated from their families applicable to children who are not citizens of Ukraine. |
Basic Rights of Orphans and Children Deprived of Parental Care
- Placement with foster families, family-type orphanages and other forms of placement that provide family upbringing.
- Orphans and children deprived of parental care living in institutions of various types and forms of ownership and subordination temporarily placed with other institutions that provide round-the-clock stay of children in settlements where the security situation ensures safety of children considering their age and state of health during a state of emergency or martial law in Ukraine.
- Military draft deferral due to family circumstances may be granted to a conscript who is an orphan and/or a child deprived of parental care, at his or her request.
- Participate in the university admission process within established quotas for admission to institutions of higher education and scientific institutions in Ukraine.
- Special social protection in vocational education and the preemptive right when enrolling in vocational education institutions.
- Full state support in educational institutions, including scholarship, salary, annual assistance for the purchase of educational literature and one-time financial assistance to graduates.
- Exemption from tuition and fees in state-owned and municipally owned educational institutions at all levels.
- Social support which shall be provided and adjusted once a year according to a special plan for each child.
- Legal, psychological and social assistance provided by Social Services for Families, Children and Youth. Children in difficult life circumstances are particularly entitled to receive such services.
- The first job; the right to receive information, professional advice, training and retraining. Priority employment across available job openings, the right to be temporarily employed and perform paid public works. Responsibility for employment of such a child rests with the local state administration and the head of the guardianship institution which cared for the child.
- Annual free health-resort and/or recuperation treatment for children under the age of 18.
- Social and occupational rehabilitation of children with disabilities.
- Housing where they lived. Responsibility for preserving such housing rests with local state administrations and/or local self-government bodies at the location of such housing. Rent and utilities costs shall be borne by local state administrations at the location of such housing until the employment of an orphanage graduate or a child deprived of parental care registered at the State Employment Service as a job seeker. To resolve such issues as forced expropriation of housing under martial law or state of emergency, reclaiming the house, damage compensation caused to the property, or providing another property to replace the property held by an orphan shall be regulated by the Law of Ukraine “On Transfer, Forcible Alienation or Seizure of Property under Martial Law or State of Emergency”, which contains no special rules on property held by children.
- Receive housing and social housing; the right to receive temporary social housing for one month since the date of application until the provision of comfortable living space for their permanent residence, or a monetary compensation for housing the applicant is received.
- Medical care, including orthopedic dentists.
- Graduates of institutions for orphans and children deprived of parental care to use sports and health facilities free of charge or on preferential terms.
- Graduates of institutions for orphans and children deprived of parental care to be paid rail, water transport, intercity bus fare and per diem for all transit time for the period of school holidays from vocational educational establishments or higher educational institutions to families where they were raised, or to places of recreation.
Gifted orphans and children deprived of parental care shall be regulated separately – the right to free education and employment according to their abilities, the right to special scholarships and internships.
