It is proposed to impose travel restrictions on negligent parents in Vitsebsk region

“Restrictions on movement” can be imposed on the parents from whom money is exacted for the maintenance of their children in orphanages. However, there is no such notion as in the Belarusian legislation, which means that such restrictions will violate human rights in the case they are really applied.

As it follows from an article published at the website of the Vitsebsk Region Executive Committee, the coordinative Coordinating Council for the execution of the Decree № 18, obliging parents to take up work in order to transfer funds to the education of children in boarding schools or orphanages, agreed on the need for additional measures.

Apart from the decree’s provision about the mandatory employment and exaction of money, the prohibition on the sale of real estate, the main justice department and the main police department of the Vitsebsk Region Executive Committee were charged with preparing a proposal concerning the imposition of restrictions on movement towards the parents who were assigned to work on the court decision, especially if they skip work and "disappear in an unknown direction."

According to the deputy chairman of the regional committee for minors Tamara Aliakhnovich, about 3.600 people who are obliged to pay for their children’s upbringing in social shelters is registered in the Vitsebsk region. Some 2.800 of them work. However, 345 of them have been absent from work for more than ten days this year.
 
The responsibility to ensure the presence of the obliged persons at work is vested in the employer, the employment service and the police. The police, who also have to look for those who evade from work, are most interested in imposing restrictions on movement of obliged parents. However, the question of how to implement it in practice remains unsolved. At present, according to Article 174 of the Criminal Code, one can be sentenced to corrective labor or personal restraint up to three years for evading from work for three months.
 
The legislation does not allow for preventive restriction of freedom of movement without court decision. This restraint seems to be too severe for the parents who are not going to evade from work and police and dream of getting their children back. According to the Commission on Minors, such tendency is really observed.

Moreover, it remains unclear what is the content of the wording "restriction on movement". If it concerns foreign travels, negligent persons can hardly travel abroad as they have no visas. At the same time, there is no passport control on the border with the Russian Federation and nobody checks the travelers’ identity.

If the a prohibition to leave the area or a particular locality is meant, we should remind that such restrictions apply only to those who give a recognizance. This is a limitation of individual rights which can be imposed only on decision of a judge, prosecutor or the investigating authorities, if the person is under investigation or is awaiting trial.