MOSCOW, March 17 (RAPSI) – Russian child protective services may lose their right to take away children from their families without appropriate court’s ruling, Izvestia newspaper reported on Thursday.

According to the newspaper, Yelena Mizulina, Deputy Chair of the Federation Council’s committee on constitutional legislation, is one of the authors behind a bill that limits the power of child protective services. Current legislation allows services to act immediately if there is information regarding potential threat to life or health of a child.

“At this time the law allows [services – ed.] to take away a child for any reason. It may be dirty dishes in the kitchen or clothes of inappropriate size. The law also encourages arbitrary restriction of the parental rights. This is unacceptable,” Mizulina said.

Legislators claim that they seek to make restriction of parental rights the last available measure when dealing with a crisis in a family.