Communicated on 2 October 2020
Published on 19 October 2020
THIRD SECTION
Application no. 5863/20
Dmitriy Nikolayevich KOVALCHUK
against Russia
lodged on 21 January 2020
SUBJECT MATTER OF THE CASE
The application concerns the granting of a residence order in respect of the applicant’s children to the mother. The expert psychologists and the childcare authorities found that it would be in the children’s best interests to live with the father. The domestic courts found “no exceptional circumstances justifying [the children]’s separation from their mother”.
QUESTIONS TO THE PARTIES
1. Did the decision to grant the residence order in respect of his children to their mother violate the applicant’s right to respect for his family life, guaranteed by Article 8 of the Convention? Did the domestic courts give sufficient reasons for their decision to give the residence order to the mother? In particular, did they conduct an in‑depth examination of the entire family situation and a whole series of relevant factors, in particular factors of a factual, emotional, psychological, material and medical nature, and did they make a balanced and reasonable assessment of the respective interests of each person, with a constant concern for determining what the best solution would be for the children (see Petrov and X v. Russia, no. 23608/16, § 98, 23 October 2018, with further references)? The parties are requested to submit copies of the childcare authorities’ opinions, and to indicate the date of the applicant’s separation from his former wife.
2. Did the decision to grant the residence order to the children’s mother rather than to the applicant on the sole ground that “there were no exceptional circumstances justifying [the children]’s separation from their mother” amount to discrimination against the applicant on grounds of sex, contrary to Article 14 of the Convention read in conjunction with Article 8?
Full & Egal Universal Law Academy