The Child Protection Centre (CPC) has made and published a report about the work of orphan’s courts in 2024. The report gives a closer look at what the orphan’s courts have done and what problems they faced in protecting children’s rights. The report includes numbers and facts, as well as a short analysis of the court decisions in different types of cases. It also shows trends and problems that affected children’s rights in 2024. The report is based on information from 42 orphan’s courts, which sent their official data to the CPC.
The report looks at several important topics:
• Custody rights: In 2024, custody rights of 1,212 parents over 1,439 children were terminated. This number is higher than in previous years.
• Single-person decisions: There were 485 single-person decisions to terminate custody rights — 56 more than in 2023.
• Court decisions: Courts took away custody rights from 539 people, which is an increase compared to the last two years.
• Out-of-family care: On December 31, 2024, there were 5,341 children living in out-of-family care.
• Foster families: The number of foster families keeps going down. At the end of 2024, there were 686 foster families.
• Host families: In 2024, 15 new host family statuses were given. Every year, the number of new host families in Latvia becomes smaller.
• Guardianship: In 2024, there were 3,818 people under guardianship. 3,329 people became guardians, and 79.8% of them were relatives. The number of people with limited legal capacity continues to rise.
• Cases and decisions: In 2024, there were 22,905 active cases in orphan’s courts, and 6,225 of them started during the year.
The full report is available in Latvian only.
In 2024, the Child Protection Centre (CPC) made and published a report titled “Analysis of Orphans’ Courts Activities Regarding Compliance with Article 203, Paragraph 4 of the Civil Law in Cases of Termination of Parental Custody Rights”. The report looks at whether orphans’ courts review cases within one year from the decision, as required by law, and if, in situations where parental custody cannot be remewed, the court makes a timely decision to statement a claim for the take away of parental rights.
The analysis is based on information from 43 orphans’ courts, covering 706 decisions. The report shows that in most cases, cases are reviewed within the one-year period, however, in approximately 35% of cases, the deadline was exceeded. Delays were often related to staff workload, changes in parents’ residence, or difficulties in obtaining information through international cooperation.
The report also indicates that when parents are given additional time to improve the family situation, in almost half of the cases parental rights are not restored, and filing a court claim occurs later. The CPC highlights that timely case review is crucial to ensure the child’s right to a stable and safe environment.
More information is available in the analytical report “Analysis of Orphans’ Courts Activities Regarding Compliance with Article 203, Paragraph 4 of the Civil Law in Cases of Termination of Parental Custody Rights”. The full report is available in Latvian only.
The analyses report about situations where parents repeatedly have their child custody rights terminated, with a special focus on addictive substances affects families.
• Repeated termination of child custody rights. In 2024, in 79% of cases, the main reason for the termination of child custody rights was parents’ use of addictive substances, which is often linked to violence and child neglect.
• Cooperation with the social service. After custody rights are restored, parents often reduce their cooperation with the social service, which leads to custody rights being terminated again.
• Lack of services for addiction treatment. Only in 53% of cases parents with addiction issues are offered services to reduce addiction, and many do not use these services fully or regularly.
• Not enough family assistant services. Only five out of 43 families from which children were removed due to neglect received a family assistant, even though this service is important for improving parenting skills.
• Services not suitable for parents’ needs. In some cases, the services offered to parents do not match their urgent needs, such as addiction treatment, which slows down effective problem-solving.
• Problems with access to services. Parents and children often have registered and actual places of residence in different administrative areas, which makes it difficult to ensure the necessary services and support.
• Not enough attention to the child’s needs. Social services should be assessed more from the child’s needs perspective, as lack of services may affect the child’s development and behaviour.
• Low motivation to continue cooperation. After custody rights are restored, parents often lose motivation to cooperate with the social service, which leads to repeated family problems.
The full report is available in Latvian only.
The Child Protection Centre (CPC) has made and published a report about unaccompanied Ukrainian minors who entered the Republic of Latvia without parental care (hereinafter referred to unaccompanied Ukranian minor) and for whom emergency guardianship was established and a emergency guardian appointed in 2024
According to Article 18, Paragraph 11 of the Law on Support for Ukrainian Civilians, the Child Protection Centre (CPC) keeps a register of unaccompanied Ukrainian minors and register information about them. This helps provide the necessary information to reunite the child with their family, and also allows the CPC to collect data in a standard way and create statistics.
Based on in 2024 the CPC collected information about unaccompanied Ukrainian minors living in Latvia, using data received from the orphan’s courts.
- From 16 March 2022 to 2 January 2025, a total of 1,477 unaccompanied Ukrainian minors were registered in Latvia.
- On 2 January 2025 was 231 unaccompanied Ukrainian minors were living in Latvia with emergency guardianship established.
- Out of these 231 unaccompanied children, 161 had a relative appointed as their emergency guardian. The remaining 70 children had another person, who was not a relative, appointed as their emergency guardian.
The full report is available in Latvian only.
The Child Protection Center (hereinafter referred to as the CPC) has prepared and published a summary of the results of the survey on Child Rights Protection Cooperation Groups. The survey of the cooperation groups was conducted in 2025.
The document explains how cooperation groups work. It describes the purpose of the groups, their territory, members, levels, rules, and how often they meet. It also explains how individual cases are reviewed in the group, including the procedures, criteria, and timelines. The role of children and their legal guardians is also explained, as well as the involvement of the CPC when coordination is not possible.
The document also includes an analysis of children’s rights protection in local government, mechanisms to support cooperation, and recommendations for law improvement.
The full report is available in Latvian only.
The Child Protection Center carried out an analysis of how municipalities create and implement Child Rights Protection Programmes. The findings show that the level of planning and quality of these programmes is very different across municipalities.
A Child Rights Protection Programme is an important planning document because it helps municipalities understand children’s needs, plan solutions, use resources effectively, and improve cooperation between institutions. It also supports long-term development and increases public trust. However, the analysis shows that many municipalities have not fully used these opportunities.
In 2024, information was collected from municipalities about their programmes. Only nine municipalities had an approved Child Rights Protection Programme. Eleven municipalities reported that they included some elements of the programme in other planning documents, which shows that the approach is not unified and planning often remains fragmented. The duration of the programmes also varied from two to six years, which indicates a lack of common standards.
Some weaknesses were identified in the existing programmes. Many municipalities did not include conclusions about the current situation, such as strengths, weaknesses, or areas where improvement is needed. Instead of developing clear actions and solutions, municipalities often limited themselves to describing the situation. Many programmes also lacked a monitoring system, which makes it difficult to evaluate progress or results.
Another important problem is the limited focus on prevention. Municipalities mainly addressed existing problems and did not plan enough activities to prevent them in the future. Child participation was also weak. Only motivated children were included, and some municipalities did not involve children at all, even though children’s views should be an important part of the planning process.
Overall, the analysis shows that municipalities need stronger planning, clearer actions, and better involvement of children and the community. This would help create more effective and sustainable support systems for children.
The full report is available in Latvian only.
In 2024, the Child Protection Center received annual reports from 12 out-of-family care support centers ( hereinafter referred to as the support centers) and collected the main difficulties, good practices, and trends in their work.
Support centers report that:
- Attracting foster families is becoming increasingly difficult because fewer people are interested in becoming foster parents, and it is hard to form training groups. They also report that existing foster families often face time and financial difficulties, which affect cooperation and create a high workload for staff. At the same time, centers note positive developments, such as more training opportunities and better cooperation with municipalities and state institutions.
- Support groups often lack participants, and it is not always possible to involve families with different statuses. Adoptive parents sometimes avoid participation because they want to keep the adoption confidential. However, centers emphasize that support groups provide important emotional support, help families share experiences, and strengthen relationships.
- The provision of training and specialist services is limited by the lack of available services and low motivation to attend training. Nevertheless, flexible training formats and individual consultations are offered, which help improve support for families.
- Creating individual plans is difficult due to incomplete information and different approaches across institutions. There is a lack of accurate data and close cooperation between the parties involved. At the same time, regular review of plans is viewed positively, as it helps adjust support to the child’s needs.
- The SPOLIS system causes significant technical problems, such as slow operation, errors, and the need to enter information twice. Although the system is not fully functional, centers hope for improvements and better efficiency in the future.
- Cooperation with municipalities is often hindered by a lack of understanding about out-of-family care, insufficient information exchange, and uneven support available to children in different areas. At the same time, there are positive examples where municipalities participate in projects, organize events, and actively support foster families.
- Cooperation between support centers is still affected by competition and limited resources, although there are also examples of good practice, experience sharing, and joint advocacy for families’ interests. In cooperation with ministries, the main challenges are communication and capacity limitations, even though the overall contact remains regular and constructive.
- The promotion of foster care and adoption is limited by lack of funding and public stereotypes. Despite this, various activities—campaigns, information events, and training—are organised to promote a positive understanding in society.
- Staff professional development is challenged by limited resources and high workload. However, supervision, professional seminars, and joint trainings are provided, which help improve the quality of work.
- Attracting additional resources is very important, and in many cases they succeed in receiving material support, donations, and involvement from organizations, which makes it possible to offer extra activities, events, and specialist services for children and families.
The full report is available in Latvian only.