The Rights of the Child at Risk

Abstract

Mainly thanks to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, its philosophy, ideas and principles, the Czech legal order was changed in early ´90 and later on, in connection with the Civil Code in 2012. The child is no longer conceived as a passive object of his or her parents´ activities, their parental responsibility, but as an active subject with legally guaranteed rights. However, not only ‘law in books’ is relevant. There is still ‘bad practice’ connected with anonymous or hidden child delivery, abandoning new born children in ‘baby-boxes’ and older children in institutional care, although the state has attempted remedies. Besides, the number of divorces has increased in the Czech Republic over the last couple of decades, while in the last few years there are more marriages, and the divorce rate is no longer so alarming. However, the statistics reveal that minor children have not been an ‘obstacle’ to a ‘radical termination’ of the matrimonial bond.

The article aims at finding an answer to the question whether abandoning an unregistered child or applying for hidden identity by his or her mother makes the ‘way’ of the child to a substitute family by adoption easier. Further, an attention is paid to surrogate motherhood. These topics are linked to the right of the child to know his or her origin. As the harmony between biological, social and legal parentage and the model of ‘continuing’ parenting are values, the well-balanced rights and duties of both the child parents and the best interest of the child are stressed. The final words are focused on alternative measures and interdisciplinary collaboration, besides public law instruments.