Czech court fails to comply with Strasbourg ruling

A Czech judge has decided not to comply with a decision by the European Court of Human Rights concerning the wrongful placement of two children, claimed by their parents, in foster care. The judge ruled that the Wallas family's two youngest children should stay with foster parents in spite of the Strasbourg court's ruling in October attacking that decision by the authorities. Judge Jaroslava Novotna defended her decision saying there was nothing in the Strasbourg ruling that said the children had to be returned immediately to their parents and said she feared they would undergo a trauma if they were returned now to people who are essentially strangers to them. Strasbourg court rulings are mandatory for governments that have signed the European Convention on Human Rights which Prague ratified in 1993.