Ensuring the right of a grandmother to communicate with her granddaughter

In October, a lawyer of Caritas Kharkiv, a DRC partner, was contacted by Tetiana, a resident of the Pisochyn community in Kharkiv Oblast, who was having her young granddaughter restricted from communicating with her.

The woman said that her son, his wife and children used to live with her. In 2021, Tetiana's granddaughter was born, and during the time they lived together, she went for daily walks in the fresh air, spent a lot of time with her, took care of the girl, and fed her. However, later the son and daughter-in-law divorced, and the young granddaughter began to live separately from her grandmother with her mother. As the divorce process was not easy, the child's mother began to interfere with her communication with her grandmother, citing her own resentment and emotions and not taking into account the child's best interests.

Tetiana noted that she tried to resolve this problem and ensure her violated rights to communicate with her granddaughter by all peaceful means before seeking legal aid.

“Realizing that the protection of the woman's violated right in court or administratively would only worsen the relationship between the child's mother and her grandmother, I received permission from Tetiana to try to resolve the dispute through negotiations with the other party without involving the guardianship and custody authorities and going to court,” says Serhiy Kunets, a lawyer with Caritas Kharkiv.

Although the daughter-in-law refused to communicate with the lawyer, her sister met her halfway and sided with her grandmother. Thus, according to the Family Code of Ukraine, a grandmother has the right to communicate with her granddaughter, and creating obstacles to their communication is illegal and violates the best interests of the child. Trying to convey this information to the child's mother and her aunt, Serhii pointed out that Tetiana was not a party to the divorce proceedings, so she should not deprive her granddaughter of love and attention, or restrict her communication with her family.

In the course of communication between the parties, the daughter-in-law agreed to the meeting between the grandmother and her granddaughter, but canceled it at the last minute.

“The only option in such circumstances was to start the relevant administrative process, but eventually, the daughter-in-law changed her attitude to the situation and stopped obstructing her daughter's meetings with her grandmother. Almost a year and a half later, Tetiana was able to hug her granddaughter again, who came to visit her with her mother,” adds the lawyer of the Caritas Kharkiv CF.

Caritas Kharkiv provides free legal aid in the Kharkiv region in cooperation with the Danish Refugee Council (DRC) with funding from the Humanitarian Fund for Ukraine (UHF).