Tomáš Zdechovský
member of the
European Parliament
This is his letters to
Solveig Horne
and
other thought's he has on the Norwegian barnevernet (cps)
"As a member of the European Parliament, I am deeply worried about how Norway, in many areas under the Rule of Law and particularly in CPS cases, violates its Human Right's obligations.
I am not surprised to see hundreds of thousands of people throughout Europe and in the rest of the world, march the streets making protests against Norway's Human Rights abuses.
With other colleagues in the European Parliament, from many different countries, I have decided that these abuses must come to a final end."
Tomáš Zdechovský is a member of the
European Parliament, and he confronts Solveig
Horne, the Minister of Youth and Equality from Norway.
This is a public appeal on behalf
of Eva Michalakova, the Bodnariu family, the family of baby Aria and
others. Perhaps Romanian politicians should do the same.
Write public
letters, demand meetings with Norway's government and push hard for the
release of the Children confiscated unfairly by Barnevernet.
.
Dear Madame Minister,
.
I turn to you with knowing that my
colleague, Mrs. Jitka Chalankova, the Member of the Czech Parliament,
and Czech lawyers of Eva Michalakova have already contacted you as well.
Since the case of Eva Michalakova's children has been dragging on for
five years already and still is not coming to an end, I would like to
ask you personally to include this case into the group of selected cases
that will be thoroughly investigated again. I am convinced that the
results of such investigation will prove fatal mistakes of Barnevern
officers in Nedre Eiker who acted not only in contrary to the
international law for the protection of children and families but also
in my opinion broke the Norwegian legislation. When reading all
evidences I noticed that the behaviour of the officers in Nedre Eiker
has been very specifically focused on the adoption of Eva Michalakova's
children from the very beginning, and that such behaviour does not have
to be necessarily motivated only by their personal aversion to her, nor
by their incompetence or indolence, alternatively by their aversion to
foreigners in general, but that some form of antipathy or personal
relationships can play some role in the case as well. I believe that the
responsible investigation of the case will bring the possibility to
unite the broken family again.
At the same time I would like to point
out some statements of the Norwegian ambassador in the Czech Republic to
the situation of the case. Unfortunately her words ended up in contrary
to the subsequent development of the case. The Norwegian ambassador in
the Czech Republic for example publicly refused the fact that the
publicizing of the case could be the reason for the removal of the
parental legal rights in Norway. Shortly after that, in September 2015,
the regional committee in Drammen removed Eva Michalakova from parental
legal rights with reference to the publicizing of the case. Eva
Michalakova immediately appealed against the decision and the Norwegian
ambassador publicly stated in Czech media that the court of appeals
would, in the interest of the children, take place as soon as possible.
In November the date of the hearing was set for February. However the
hearing was adjourned only few days before the beginning. And it
happened in time when whole Czech family of David and Denis had air
tickets to Norway where they wanted to support Eva Michalakova and
witnessed her readiness for the children's return to their own
biological family. As the reason the court gave the shortage of
interpreters. Such reason can be considered, given the urgency of the
situation and time when the children have to stay away from their home,
absolutely irrelevant. Moreover the court itself set the date of the
hearing and therefore the court had enough time from November to arrange
for interpreters. I suppose that the reason for the adjournment must be
always very serious. And that is why I consider the lack of
interpreters absolutely unforgivable amateur procedure.
At the same time children's grandparents
were again prohibited from meeting with the children because of the
stress from the court hearing. An argument from last September was the
stress from the beginning of the school year for a change. The children
have stayed in foster families for four years already without any chance
to meet their families and it is obvious that they are kept in such
isolation without any information about the real interest of their
family intentionally. In my opinion the fact that the United Nations
Convention on the Rights of the Child is constantly violated,
specifically the article stating that children have the right to be in
touch with their biological families, is a big problem.
.
Dear Madame Minister,
In the European Parliament I have been
dealing with the issues of children being removed from their parents in
Norway for more than a year already, not only in response to the case of
the Czech family of Eva Michalakova. Since the number of complaints
about the procedures of Barnevern addressed to the European Parliament
increased, I intent to keep dealing with this issue very intensively.
Last June I organized a round table meeting on this topic in the
European Parliament where many Members of the European Parliament and
the Norwegian ambassador were present. This topic became the subject of
the meetings of the EU Legal Committee working group. I have met
Norwegian diplomats many times, I have received personally
representatives of the families from Norway from which their children
were removed by the Norwegian social service and who were prohibited to
meet their children without the explanation of the reasons, without the
offer of help, without the possibility to prove their parental abilities
and love to their children. I am aware of a few hundreds of such cases
and I am sure it is just the tip of the iceberg.
I am sure you are aware that there have
been the worldwide protests against the procedures of Barnevernet for a
few months already. These protests firstly reacted especially on the
case of Bodnari family from which five children were removed including
one three months old breast-fed baby. I am being informed about this
case in details and I am in touch with the family with the help of my
co-workers. Last week I was informed that the Bodnari family got one
child back. It is certainly good, but at the same time it raises a
question about the logic of the decision to return one child of five,
only the youngest one. Similar decisions raise repeatedly a question
about the logicality of the Norwegian procedures.
I am also aware of the case of Ken Olsen
and his daughter Aria who was removed from her parents right from the
maternity hospital and whose parents can meet her only four times a year
for two hours under the stern supervision of Barnevern. I was shocked
also by another case of a Czech mother whose seriously ill few months
old daughter waiting for the kidney transplant surgery was removed from
her. After three months of violent separation her parents succeeded only
with help of the detailed records kept by the hospital proving
calculated lies of the Barnevernet officers. This case caused another
huge uproar in the Czech Republic.
One happy end is rising among tens of
other affected families, and that is the case of the Norwegian-Slovakian
couple whose fully breast-fed daughter was removed from them because of
inadequate eye contact (in reality probably because of the mother's
handicap - she is deaf). Despite the fact that the parents were proved
right by the court and their daughter should have been returned to them,
Barnevernet has not returned the girl to her family yet.
Dear Madame Minister,
I am sure that you are fully aware of the
urgency of the situation regarding Barnevern, because the steps you
take in the field of the childcare are getting clearly to the
improvement of the situation of families and their children. I believe
that you will not forget about the rectification of the wrongs done by
the officers of Barnevernet especially in some towns and localities in
the past. It is not possible to only leave it as it is referring that
children have already got used to their foster families, especially if
there is their own loving family and parents waiting for them.
The argument that children have already
got used to their foster families is absolutely unacceptable, not even
from the legal point of view, but also from the human perspective. As a
father of three children I can confirm that I would never reconcile
myself to it. Moreover the argument is perceived exceptionally
sensitively in the Czech Republic with respect to the village Lidice and
its inhabitants during the World War II. As a reaction to the
successful attempt on Reinhard Heydrich's life - R. Heydrich was one of
the closest people of Adolf Hitler - the Nazis randomly chose one Czech
village (Lidice) and not only burnt it down or murdered all men and sent
all women to concentration camps but also sorted out all children.
Those suited for the re-education were placed in families in Germany and
those "racially unsuitable" were killed. The Nazis sent not only
children from Lidice to Germany for the re-education. A book by Zdenka
Bezdekova about such "re-education" of a little girl They Called Me Leni
was translated into many languages including Swedish and Danish, and I
am sure the book is available to Norwegian readers as well. When the war
ended children returned home. Nobody even thought about leaving them in
German families, even though they often got used to them and forgot
speaking Czech. The Czech public perceives the destiny of Denis and
David Michalak also in this terrifying context. Since Norway was until
recently perceived very positively, such cases lead to the disillusion
and disappointment with Norway.
I take your promise made at the end of
the last year about the investigation of the mistakes made by the
Norwegian social service very seriously and I would like to express you
my full support in this matter and alternatively offer you my knowledge
and help. I wish that the situation of children removed for no reason
and placed in foster families would be solved as soon as possible. I am
sure that parents of those children are fully aware of the traumas their
children had to go through and are ready to cooperate with specialists
and current foster families. The reason is very simple. They love their
children and want to give them the love that officers of Barnevern
denied them. The sooner it will happen the better, and the negative
publicity Norway is getting not even in the Czech Republic but also in
other European and non-European countries regarding the Barnevernet's
work will fade away.
Yours sincerely,
Tomáš Zdechovský
Member of the European Parliament (EPP)