3. 4. 5. 6. particular issue is within the area of government of the Ministry of Social Affairs, the Ministry of Education and Research, the Ministry of Justice, or any other ministry. On the basis of the Draft Act, the child protection council as a Government committee will be established, which should have a key role in ensuring cross-sectoral child protection and in harmonising all the draft legislation and national strategies concerning child welfare. The Social Insurance Board will establish child protection related competence (a child protection unit) and the Board’s child protection officials will be counselling local government child protection workers in resolving cases of child protection. The Draft Act establishes the bases for regular employment counselling of child protection workers of local authorities and the obligation to provide them training courses on the national level. The Draft Act remedies the shortcomings in the regulative provisions concerning separation of the child from the family by specifying certain aspects so as to ensure a more uniform implementation practice in local authorities as regards separation of children from their families. The Chancellor of Justice also found several weaknesses in the Draft Act but their detailed description hereby would not be practicable. Therefore, only some of the problems have been highlighted below, and a more detailed analysis of them can be found in the Chancellor’s opinion. For example, the Chancellor pointed out that the principles of prevention established by the Act are too general and declarative and they do not essentially oblige the local authorities to carry out specific prevention with regard to children and families. In the opinion of the Chancellor, the Act should have contained more specific provisions on prevention. The Chancellor also found that the requirement that a local authority should establish a staff position of a child protection official only “if necessary” is insufficient – the Act provides for very important measures the implementation of which depends on the existence of a child protection official. If a local authority does not have such a staff position, the quality of child protection work in that local authority will suffer. Also, in the opinion of the Chancellor the Act should have established more clearly the issues concerning separation of the child from the family; some confusion is caused by the provision concerning separation of the child from the family when the parent does not voluntarily agree to place the child with a service provider. The parent’s right of complaint could also be established more clearly in the Act. 5. Verification of constitutionality of the new Child Protection Act During the reporting year, the Chancellor also received a petition for verification of constitutionality of the new Child Protection Act which has not yet entered into. As a result of the proceedings, the Chancellor found that the provisions of the Act mentioned in the petition, to the extent pointed out by the petitioner, were not in conflict with the Constitution or the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. With regard to appreciation of the family, the Chancellor explained that § 7 of the new Child Protection Act establishes, expressis verbis, that the natural environment for the development and growth of the child is the family and the primary liability for ensuring the child’s rights and well-being lies with the parent or with the person raising the child. The Chancellor also explained with regard to the child’s right to know his or her parents that this right arises from § 27(3) of the Constitution and § 116 of the Family Law Act. The parent’s duty to raise their child and care for the child arising from § 27(3) of the Constitution as well as § 116(2) of the 55