Back in August, when the legislative initiative by the Ministry of Education aimed at tightening the demands for adoption and guardianship was first being talked about, Elena Ivanova, EVA Association member and Peer-to-Peer Project Coordinator sent a request to the Ministry to ask for a meeting in person: Elena is worried about the issue of the rights of people living with HIV to adopt or have guardianship of a child.
Update: the Ministry of Education sent a letter with the result of the personal meeting. The letter is published here for your reference.
At present according to the Russian legislation people living with HIV do not have the right to adopt or take guardianship of a child. The Ministry of Education proposed to make an amendment to article 127 of the family code for the cases when the child is already in a family. At the personal meeting with the deputy Minister of Education Tatiana Yurievna Sinyougina, Elena Ivanova pointed out that this amendment nonetheless is discriminatory towards people living with HIV. However according to Tatiana’s words, the Ministry is not yet ready for something more substantive considering that there is a fear that society is not ready for such serious changes and action must be taken step by step.
You can learn more about the proposed bill and leave a comment here.
Elena has been advised to send future proposals to legislative changes to the Ministry of Health and has been assured of their readiness for constructive cooperation in the future.
“In my opinion, the bill changes the situation, but, to my dismay, in very restricted cases,” Elena Ivanova remarked. “Therefore it is important to work further to improve the legislation so that it is equally humane and indiscriminate to all Russian citizens regardless of their HIV status. I would like to continue working on this issue in a constructive and step-by-step manner.”