Interference of the state in the right of custody and visiting rights of the parents would be in conformity with the rights of the child if a thorough impact analysis is carried out in each proceeding concerning children to establish all the protection and risk factors affecting the wellbeing of the particular child and to analyse the impact of various possible solutions on the child’s well-being. Moreover, in each such case the child’s own opinion should be established if the child’s level of development enables them to express it, and the child’s opinion should be taken into account in making the decision. This way it is possible to make a decision based on the best interests of the child. In addition, several petitions received during the reporting year also revealed the problem that after the divorce parents did not take sufficient account of the interests and opinion of the child in organising the child’s life. The petitions revealed that often the parents were occupied only with their own problems and were not able to act in the interests of the child. Poor relationship between the parents often significantly damaged the well-being of the child. In the opinion of the Chancellor, to protect the interests of children in case of legal separation of the parents the parents should be offered significantly more opportunities for using family counselling and conciliation services. In doing this, it is important that the services are made available everywhere in Estonia and are affordable for parents. It is important to support parents so that they are able to offer a safe and supporting environment for the child also after separation. Problems with taking account of the interests of the child in executing court rulings concerning visiting rights also continued to be topical during the reporting year.94 The following part contains an overview of the selected proceedings in 2014. 1. Separation of children from the family, organisation of the life of children separated from the family, and visiting rights of the parents of children separated from the family The competence of the Chancellor of Justice as the supervisory body in verifying the activities of local authorities in separating a child from the family is limited because the Chancellor cannot prescribe to a local authority how exactly it should have assessed a particular situation or what kind of a decision it should have made. Assessment of the situation of the child and deciding the need for intervention is a discretionary decision of each local authority and the Chancellor, similarly to a court, when examining the decision may only verify whether any significant errors of discretion occurred when making the decision. Moreover, when a petition concerning the separation of a child from the family is submitted to the Chancellor a court dispute over custody rights is often pending. The Chancellor may not give an assessment on issues in respect of which court proceedings are ongoing. Thus, the 94 The Supreme Court en banc has pointed out that the full procedure for the execution of a special court decision regulating contacts between a parent and a child under visiting rights is not regulated with sufficient clarity under the Code of Enforcement Procedure and, therefore, the regulation in combination with § 563 of the Code of Civil Procedure needs to be supplemented or amended, so as to ensure the existence of a clear procedure for the execution of a court decision regulating contacts between a parent and a child and a swift and effective execution of such a decision. In more detail, see the Supreme Court en banc ruling of 17 December 2013 No 3-2-1-4-13, para 55. 49

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