Press Release, 15.12.2021

Photo: Yevgeny Bunimovich / Photo by the Press Service of the Moscow City Duma

The Moscow City Duma adopted a bill submitted by Yevgeny Bunimovich, a member of the Yabloko faction and Chairman of the Education Commission, according to which children under investigation and kept in pre-trial detention centres are guaranteed secondary education.

Up to the present, the learning process in the pre-trial detention centres has been reduced to self-study, it is not regulated by laws in any way and is not controlled in any way. As a result, many suspected and accused children simply refuse to study.

According to the adopted bill, the administration of pre-trial detention centres is obliged to provide all conditions for children to receive secondary education.

“After all, direct contact with a teacher can be the first step towards the correction of a minor. And it is the teacher who can lay the foundations of decency, fill in the gaps in the upbringing of a child in custody,” the explanatory note of the bill runs.

It should be noted that children who are already convicted of crimes (in contrast to the children held in pre-trial detention centres) have the right to study. The bill gives constitutional rights to children whose guilt has not been proven. “Children are kept in pre-trial detention centres not for a day or two, as it might seem, but sometimes months and years, and it is very important that after their release they become full-fledged members of society,” Yevgeniy Bunimovich said in his speech.

Yabloko is extremely positive about the results of the consideration of the bill. Maxim Kruglov, head of the Yabloko faction in the Moscow City Duma, noted in his speech: “We hope that this initiative will be the first step towards reforming the penitentiary system as a whole, towards its humanisation.”

The bill was adopted in two readings at once, all the Moscow City Duma deputies voted in favour. Now the bill will be submitted to the State Duma for consideration.

YEVGENY BUNIMOVICH

is member of the Federal Political Committee of the Yabloko party. Deputy of the Moscow City Duma, Chairman of the Education Commission. Honoured Teacher of Russia, Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences. Former Ombudsman for Children’s Rights in Moscow.