Child's death in Dagestan actualizes problem of protecting mothers' right to custody

In Northern Caucasus, divorced women find it difficult to achieve custody over their children if the ex-husband decides to keep them. Relatives can interfere with mother's contacts with children and put pressure on them, the rights defenders interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot" have stated after the death of a four-year-old girl from Makhachkala in her stepmother's family.

When divorcing spouses, courts in Northern Caucasus often leave children with their fathers. Not all women manage to achieve custody, Svetlana Anokhina, a rights defender, has noted.

The advocate Bakanai Guseinova had only one case, in her 15-year-long practice, when a mother could achieve custody over her child through the Supreme Court (SC) of Dagestan.

Since 2016, Aminat Makhmudova, a citizen of Estonia, has been seeking the return of her two children, who had been taken to Dagestan by her ex-husband.

As noted by Libkan Bazaeva, the director of the non-profit organization "Women for Development", an important factor is the financial status of the woman after divorce: she must have housing and employment with a decent salary.

Since 2009, the "Legal Initiative" project has been running 29 cases about custody over children in Northern Caucasus. In April 2018, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) recognized a violation of the rights of Elita Magomadova, a resident of Moscow: in 2013, the father of her son took him to Grozny and prevented her from seeing the boy, says the website of the ECtHR.

In May 2018, the ECtHR found violations of the rights of the Muscovite, Leyla Muruzhueva, who had been seeking the return of her children for four years. Her former husband had taken her two children to Ingushetia.