Parental Rights and Duties

the personal and property rights and duties that the law assigns to parents to ensure a proper upbringing and material support for their children and to protect the children’s rights and interests. The Constitution of the USSR (art. 53) states that spouses are completely equal in their family relations. The father and mother have equal rights and duties with respect to their children regardless of whether they are married or divorced. They have the right to bring up their children from the moment the children are born until they attain majority. The Constitution of the USSR (art. 66) stipulates that citizens of the USSR are obliged to concern themselves with the upbringing of their children, to train them for socially useful work, and to raise them as worthy members of a socialist society.

All questions pertaining to the upbringing of children are decided by the father and mother on the basis of mutual consent, and disputes that may arise between them are resolved by guardianship agencies. If the parents are living apart, disputes over which parent should have custody of the children are decided by a court. In such decisions the most important criterion is the children’s welfare. Parents who do not live with their children have the right to visit them and must take part in their upbringing. Parents are the legal representatives of their minor children, whose rights and interests they must protect in all institutions, including legal ones, without special authorization. They are obliged to support their children, both minors and disabled adults needing assistance.

Parental rights are protected by law, and parents have the right to demand the return of their children from any person holding the children in defiance of the law or a court judgment.

Parents (or one parent) who perform their duties improperly may be deprived of their parental rights if they evade their parental duties or abuse their parental rights, treat children cruelly, exert a harmful influence on them by their amoral or antisocial behavior, or are chronic alcoholics or drug addicts (for example, the Code of Laws on Marriage and the Family of the RSFSR, art. 59). Deprivation of parental rights does not relieve parents of the duty to support their children. Parental rights may be restored if the interests of the children require it.