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Rights court splits on Norwegian child custody cases

In recent years, Norway has been found guilty of violating the human rights of families in more than a dozen child welfare cases.

STRASBOURG, France (CN) — Europe’s top rights court has split on Norway's liability in a pair of child welfare cases, finding the Nordic country guilty of violations in one case where it removed a child from her home, but not in another. 

The European Court of Human Rights ruled on Thursday that Oslo proceeded correctly in a case involving a Czech family whose two children were removed from the home, but the judges concluded in another case the Norwegian government didn’t do enough to reunite a child with her Slovak parents.

Both cases have attracted media attention, especially in the home countries of the parents. Czech Republican President Miloš Zeman referred to the Barnevernet, the Norwegian child welfare authorities, as Nazis in a 2015 interview. 

The Ladickych family 

Maxine, the then-2-month-old daughter of Sara and Andrej Ladickych, was removed from her parents’ care by the Barnevernet in 2015. The authorities were suspicious the Slovak couple were neglecting the baby, citing Maxine's “minimal eye contact” with her parents during a series of in-home visits. 

The parents initially won a suit before a district court, which was overturned on appeal because of a suspicion of bias by one of the judges. A subsequent ruling limited the Ladickychs' contact with their daughter to one hour, three times a year. 

The Strasbourg-based rights court's Firth Section concluded that the restrictions were severe and would likely keep Maxine from being returned to her parents, effectively condemning her to grow up in foster care.

“Family reunification cannot normally be expected to be sufficiently supported if there are intervals of weeks, or even months, between each contact session,” the court wrote. It ordered Norway to pay the family 25,500 euros ($29,000) in compensation. 

The Michalakova family

Czech citizens Eva and Joseph Michalakova moved to Norway in 2005 for work and had two sons, Dennis in 2005 and David in 2008. The Barnevernet removed both boys from their home in 2011 on suspicion of abuse, although the police ultimately declined to bring charges. The child welfare agency still decided that the Michalakovas' parental rights should be terminated, in part because Eva went to the media with her story, which officials said caused the boys emotional harm. Both boys were eventually adopted and the parents have had no contact with their children since 2015. 

The case caused problems between the two countries, with the Czech consult attempting to intervene on the couple's behalf and the government disinviting Norway’s ambassador to the Czech Republic to an event in 2015, after the forced adoption was made public. 

The human rights court found that the Michalakova case had been handled appropriately by the Norwegian authorities, concluding that although Eva hadn’t abused the boys herself, she had failed to shield them from abuse from their father. The couple has since divorced.

"I am disappointed by the decision of the European Court of Human Rights in the case of Eva Michalakova. We had all hoped that after ten years Mrs. Michalakova would get her sons back into her care,” Czech Member of European Parliament Tomáš Zdechovský said in a statement. He’s taken a particular interest in the case, writing several op-eds about the ongoing complaints Czech and other foreigners have had with Norway’s child protection authorities. 

Norway and child welfare

Norway has lost more than dozen child welfare cases before the Strasbourg court, including one from a Somali immigrant who wanted her son to be raised by relatives or at least a Muslim family. Instead, he was forcibly adopted by Evangelical Christians. In the Ladických case, the court noted "the similarity between the facts of this case and those given in other cases against the respondent state.” 

The same year Maxine was removed from her family, 140 childcare professionals wrote a letter to the Norwegian government criticizing the Barnevernet. “A long list of children – the actual number is not known by anyone – are exposed to serious failures of understanding and infringements of their rights,” the letter said.

A 2018 BBC documentary also interviewed multiple parents whose children were permanently removed from their care and given limited contact. 

Follow @mollyquell
Categories / Civil Rights, Government, International

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