Rights of minors and their protection in criminal law: problems of regulation

At present, in Russia, civil law, administrative law, criminal law mechanisms are used for protectionof the rights and legitimate interests of the minors who have suffered from family violence and cruel treatment to make the guiltylegally responsible. In the article some criminal law problems of minors rights protection in the Russian Federation are analysed. Inparticular, it is noticed that in the criminal legislation of the Russian Federation the victims age of 14-17 is a strengthening the criminalliability sign in 15 legally defined crimes, and the age of 0-13 years - in 5 legally defined crimes (such crimes are analysed in the article).It is also noticed that the definition of minor age in Part 1 Art. 87 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation does not correspondto the definition of this age fixed in the Convention on the Rights of the Child and other international legal documents. Discrepancyin definitions causes a possibility of double interpretation of the given term, which, in some cases, leads to a decrease in the levelof protection of the persons who are under 14. The author offers variants of solving the given contradiction. In the article the importanceof the system principle observance at defining qualifying circumstances is marked. The given principle provides uniformity of legislativedesigns of homogeneous signs. According to the author, there are blanks in regulation of responsibility for various forms of economicexploitation of children (though criminalisation of such behaviour is provided by international legal documents). There still is nocriminal liability for using minors at works, which are prohibited, and for hiring minors for specified works in the absence of signs ofhuman traffic and slave labour using. In the article other problems connected with protection of rights of minors in Russian criminal laware also specified. It is noticed that they should be considered separately.

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