We are proud of the best weapons in the world, and schoolchildren go to the bathroom outside in minus 30 degrees."
The position of Commissioner for Children's Rights under the President of the Russian Federation appeared relatively recently - in 2009. At that time, it was not yet associated with "defense of conservative values and support for Kremlin policies", as journalists Nina Nazarova and Svyatoslav Khomenko point out in the book "Stolen Children's Home" (Beit Medusa Publishing).
The first ombudsman for children's rights was Alexey Golovan. Initially, Golovan did not plan to connect his life to social work and studied to become a nuclear physicist. But in my fourth year at MEPhI, I accidentally learned that the institute had a funded boarding school, which had fallen into a difficult situation - it was about to be closed. Together with other students and teachers, Golovan managed to defend the school's right to exist.
After that, Golovan became actively involved in social work - he was an inspector of the Bureau of Public Guardianship and Trust, helped solve the problems of students of state children's institutions for orphans and children left without parental care in the Lenin Soviet Children's Fund, and then even founded his own charity center "Partnership in Fate". The organization still provides legal, social and practical assistance to orphans, graduates of orphanages and foster families.
In 1993, Golovan underwent vocational training as a social worker, and then as a lawyer, in order to "feel more secure in the field of protecting the rights of orphans."
When in Russia in 2002 a regional institute of children's ombudsmen appeared - the Children's Rights Commissioner in Moscow. The project for this role was prepared by the "Partnership in Fate" center, and Golovan was the first to conquer it.
On September 1, 2009, the position of Chief Commissioner for Children's Rights was established in Russia - Golovan also entered it.