The birth of a child is always a joy, but also a responsibility. As it turns out in practice, the older the child, the greater the responsibility. And if with regard to a child up to the age of one, the question becomes that she is not hungry and in a clean diaper, then with a twelve-year-old child, everything is much more complicated. Sometimes responsibility catches up from where you never expect.
In the mass media, information about the illegal acts of teenagers or the careless attitude of parents towards their children appears more and more often. IA “FAKT” turned to the “Repeshko and Partners” Bar Association for a comment on the responsibility of parents for their children from the point of view of legislation.
Recently, mothers who had children, mostly of preschool age, began to turn to lawyers en masse. At the same time, all the mothers were from full families, where there was also a loving father, well-off, young, active, who take care of children (private clinics, umbilical cord blood banks, the sea in summer, vaccinations according to the schedule, etc.). However, they were united by one sad feature – all of them were brought to administrative responsibility under Part 1 of Art. 184 of the Code of Ukraine on Administrative Offenses – “Evasion of parents or persons who replace them from the fulfillment of the obligations stipulated by the law to ensure the necessary living conditions, education and upbringing of minor children.”
More than the fact of being brought to administrative responsibility, there were interesting circumstances in our practice, under which administrative responsibility protocols were drawn up on women, which were later referred to the court for the imposition of a fine. Here are examples:
- A young mother was changing a baby’s diaper on a changing table. The child twisted, twisted and fell off the table when the mother reached for a clean diaper. Frightened by the sight of blood, the mother called an ambulance. As it turned out, the little one had a slightly damaged lip. The woman herself insisted on going to the hospital, taking an X-ray and a more detailed examination. Then it turned out that everything was fine with the child.
- The family returned from a vacation at sea. At the time when no one was in the apartment during the vacation, mother, taking care of the decent living conditions of the family, made and laid out a folk remedy for cockroaches – balls made of boiled egg and boric acid. A four-year-old child was the first to break into her favorite apartment, and while her parents were dragging their suitcases, she managed to grab one such ball and put it in her mouth in the kitchen. The mother saw this and reacted immediately – the child’s stomach was washed, an ambulance was called, he was examined, and just in case, he was taken to the hospital for a more detailed examination.
- The mother went on business, being sure that everything will be fine with the child, because she left her not with someone, but with her father! The father decided that he has urgent matters that are more important than the child, and the grandmother, who is 80 years old, will be able to cope with the little one – “as much as she has raised her own.” Unfortunately, the grandmother did not manage – the child broke his arm. Then according to the standard scheme – calling an ambulance, a hospital and… administrative protocol for the mother.
It is interesting that all these protocols were drawn up without the presence of the children’s parents, based on the results of the report by the police ambulance teams.
In connection with distance learning in some regions of Ukraine during hostilities, the next wave of protocols in courts was connected with the fact that children do not attend classes and concerned children of school age. In some cases, parents really carelessly did not ensure the child’s access to education, and in others, they decided that education is the full responsibility of the child himself, regardless of his age.
Therefore, we remind parents what exactly and when they are responsible for their children.
According to the Law of Ukraine “On the Protection of Childhood”, upbringing in the family is the primary basis for the development of a child’s personality. Each parent is equally responsible for the child’s education, training and development. Parents or persons who replace them have the right and obligation to raise a child, take care of his health, physical, spiritual and moral development, education, create appropriate conditions for the development of his natural abilities, respect the dignity of the child, prepare him for independent life and work.
The Code of Ukraine on Administrative Offenses has a number of articles that provide for the responsibility of parents, namely:
- Article 180 – bringing a minor to a state of intoxication by the minor’s parents, persons who replace them, or other persons – entails the imposition of a fine from UAH 102 to UAH 136;
- Article 184, part 1 – evasion of parents or persons who replace them from the fulfillment of the obligations provided by law to ensure the necessary living conditions, education and upbringing of minor children – entails a warning or the imposition of a fine from UAH 850 to UAH 1,700;
- Article 184, part 2 – repeatedly within a year after the imposition of an administrative sanction, evasion of parents or persons who replace them from fulfilling the obligations provided for by the law to ensure the necessary living conditions, education and upbringing of minor children – entails the imposition of a fine from UAH 1,700 to UAH 5,100;
- Article 184, Part 3 – the commission by minors of the age of fourteen to sixteen of an offense for which liability is provided for by this Code, except for the violations provided for by the third or fourth parts of Article 173-4 of this Code, entails the imposition of a fine on parents or persons who replace from UAH 850 to UAH 1,700;
- Article 184, part 4 – the commission by minors of acts that contain signs of a criminal offense, the responsibility for which is provided for by the Criminal Code of Ukraine, if they have not reached the age from which criminal responsibility arises (full criminal responsibility begins at the age of 16, for some crimes, persons are brought to punishment from 14 to 16 years old), – entails the imposition of a fine on parents or persons who replace them, from UAH 1,700 to UAH 5,100;
- Article 184, Part 5 – failure to comply with the decision of the guardianship authority regarding the determination of the methods of participation in the child’s education and communication with the parent who lives separately from the child – entails the imposition of a fine from UAH 1,700 to UAH 2,550;
- Article 184, Part 6 – committed repeatedly within a year after the imposition of an administrative fine, failure to comply with the decision of the guardianship authority regarding the determination of ways of participation in the child’s upbringing and communication with the parent who lives separately from the child – entails the imposition of a fine of UAH 2,550 up to UAH 5,100 and temporary restriction of the right of the parent with whom the child lives to travel outside of Ukraine and restriction of the right to drive a vehicle – until the decision is fully implemented;
- Article 184, part 7 – intentional violation of the statutory limit on the child’s stay outside Ukraine in the case of an independent decision on the child’s temporary departure outside of Ukraine by the parent whose place of residence has been determined by the court decision or confirmed by the guardianship body’s opinion, – entails the imposition of a fine from UAH 1,700 to UAH 3,400.
It should be taken into account that the danger of such administrative fines does not always lie in the amount. Sometimes the very fact of being held to such responsibility and the imposition of a fine, no matter how symbolic in amount it may be, is dangerous. In the future, if the child’s second parent wishes to file a lawsuit to determine the child’s place of residence together with him/her, or to deprive the mother/father of parental rights in relation to the child, the imposed fine, for example, for improper performance of parental duties, may become a dominant argument in the fight for the child, no matter how ridiculous circumstances it was imposed.
However, in addition to administrative liability, the child’s parents may also be held criminally liable, namely under the following articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine:
- Article 166 – willful failure by parents, guardians or custodians to fulfill the duties established by law to care for a child or a person in respect of whom guardianship or guardianship has been established, which has caused serious consequences, is punishable by restriction of liberty for a term of two to five years or deprivation of liberty at will for the same term. What is more, actions will be considered “malicious” in the sense of this article, if administrative fines have already been imposed on the parents for this a couple of times, as mentioned earlier;
- article 150-1 – use of a minor child by parents or persons who replace them for begging (systematic begging for money, things, other material values from outsiders) – is punishable by restriction of liberty for a term of up to three years or deprivation of liberty for the same term. The same actions committed against someone else’s minor child or related to the use of violence or the threat of its use, as well as committed repeatedly either by a person who previously committed one of the criminal offenses provided for by Articles 150, 303, 304 of this Code, or by a previous conspiracy by a group of persons – shall be punished by restriction of liberty for a term of up to five years or deprivation of liberty for a term of three to eight years;
- Article 164 – malicious evasion of the payment of child maintenance funds (alimony) established by a court decision, as well as malicious evasion of parents from the maintenance of minor or disabled children who are dependent on them, is punishable by community service for a period of eighty to one hundred and twenty hours or probation supervision for a term of up to two years, or by restriction of freedom for the same term. The same act, committed by a person previously tried for a criminal offense provided for in this article, is punishable by community service for a period of one hundred twenty to two hundred and forty hours or probation supervision for a period of two to three years, or restriction of freedom for the same period;
- Article 304 – involvement of minors in illegal activities, drunkenness, begging, gambling – is punishable by imprisonment for a term of three to seven years. The same actions committed against a minor by a father, mother, stepfather, stepmother, guardian or custodian, or a person entrusted with the responsibilities of raising the victim or taking care of him, are punishable by imprisonment for a term of four to ten years
It should be noted that the responsibility of parents towards minor children does not end there. The third type of responsibility is material. According to Article 1178 of the Civil Code of Ukraine:
“Damage caused by a minor (who has not reached the age of fourteen) shall be compensated by his parents (adoptive parents) or guardian or other natural person who, on legal grounds, carries out the upbringing of a minor – if they do not prove that the damage is not the result of dishonest conduct or evasion by them from carrying out upbringing and supervision of a minor”.
According to Article 1179 of the Civil Code of Ukraine, “A minor (between the ages of fourteen and eighteen) is responsible for the damage caused by him independently on general grounds. If a minor does not have property sufficient to compensate for the damage caused by him, this damage shall be compensated in the missing part or in full by his parents (adoptive parents) or guardian, unless they prove that the damage was caused through no fault of theirs “.
So, if a child, not in a good mood, approached another child, took a toy or a phone from her and threw them on the asphalt, the cost of the damaged item must be compensated by the parents.
A separate law regulates the relationship between children, parents and the educational institution. According to Art. 47 of the Law of Ukraine “On general secondary education”:
“Damage caused by students (students) of a general educational institution shall be compensated in accordance with the legislation of Ukraine. Malicious evasion of parents from fulfilling their responsibilities regarding the acquisition of their minor children’s full general secondary education may be grounds for deprivation of their parental rights.”
As you can see, with children the main rule to remember is: children are the flowers of our life. How you take care of them, and what you put into them, is what you will get in the future. We advise parents: if they are completely sure of their innocence in the event of being brought to administrative or criminal responsibility, it is necessary to go to the end and prove it! In the three stories from which our commentary began, everything ended well – the women sought legal help in a timely manner and the cases were closed in court in the absence of an administrative offense in their actions.
