ATTORNEY AT LAW SOKOL NEDKOV: FIGHTING FOR CHILDREN'S RIGHTS

He works with particular passion on parental rights cases, because he believes that children are the greatest, yet more vulnerable, asset to a society and that all relevant institutions and professionals should work tirelessly to protect their best interests.

What are the main principles that you follow when you work on parental rights-related cases?

I always make the children's interests my top priority. It is of utmost importance to strictly protect their basic rights as defined by a number of international acts, most importantly the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, adopted in 1989. I would like to single out one of the most important of these – the right of adequate relationship with both parents. This right, however, is most often violated by the insufficiently effective national law, judicial system and law enforcement authorities. There are many cases of children who, due to this inefficiency, do not have the full volume of their right for adequate contact with both parents. This could be due to delayed justice, insufficient amount of visiting time allocated to the non-custodial parent, or just court decisions that cannot be properly implemented in full volume.

How do you manage to protect children's interest?

As an active defender of human rights, the key to my practice's impressive success is that I work with emotion and have zero tolerance to even the slightest violations of children's rights. This, and the constant improvement of our activities.

What should parents know when they travel with their child in the Schengen area?

Bulgaria's joining the Schengen area by air and water has a beneficial effect on children's rights because they can now travel with just one their parents, without the need of additional documents such as declaration for consent by the other parent.

What conditions should be met for a child to be protected from an international abduction by a parent or a legal guardian?

The law was recently amended to give additional guarantees to parents who have reasonable concerns that this might happen. In such cases it is already possible to initiate a judicial procedure that can be used by the court to prohibit a child at risk from international abduction from leaving the country. According to the law, in pending procedures before the court decision, as a preliminary judicial measure, the child can leave the country only after a decision by the court in advance. To use this right in its full volume, it is highly recommendable to use the services of a good lawyer in family law.

When an international abduction of a child happens, it is important to work according to the procedure defined in the Hague Convention of the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction whose object is the return of the abducted child. In this respect, it is important for the court to carefully consider the circumstances in which a parent might want to take their child to a country that has not ratified the convention, as this hides significant risks to children.

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