The Cabinet of Ministers has approved, within its today meeting, a series of amendments to the protection law of children at risk and children separated from their parents. The proposed amendments would expand the powers of guardianship and will toughen penalties for parents who do not respect the children’s rights.

The document provides the parents’ prosecution for failure or any improper fulfillment of obligations at upbringing and education of the child and collect from parents, guilty of child upbringing and education, spending in social services at the time of placement until the child's reintegration into the family.

Also, children will be entitled to compensation for material or moral damage caused by bodily injury, health or violation of personal property rights, due to violence, neglect, exploitation or shirking parents from exercising parental duties.

However, the Criminal Code was supplemented by two articles providing for criminal responsibility for willfully shirking parents from exercising parental duties.