Widespread economic hardships, family poverty, diseases such as Aids, old and deeply-rooted local traditions: these are some of the conditions that are at the source of continuing child abandonment in some countries of the old continent. The problem is now being investigated by a committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (Pace), which sent Michael Hancock to Ukraine these days, until 30th August. The MEP "is drawing up a report about the abandonment of newborn babies", explains Pace in a report, "to assess the extent of this phenomenon and find means to fight it". The MEP "will meet the Ukrainian deputy ministers for justice and the family, the Mayor of Kiev, the children’s mediator and delegates of Unicef and other NGOs specialising in children’s rights". The MEP found that "high rates of child abandonment persist in several states of central and eastern Europe, which sometimes are related to ancient "customs that invited people" to expose children, especially when the parents live in economic or social difficulties or when the babies are sick. Hancock’s report "will have to locate measures to prevent" the problem and "will be on the agenda of the first meeting of the CoE committee for social, medical and family issues", due in Paris on 20th September 2007.
