In recent months, too many families in Cyprus have had to face what no parent should ever experience, the death of a child, the grief of knowing that life will never be the same again. For some, that heartbreak has been compounded by police questioning, detention and even criminal prosecution, forcing parents to confront the justice system while still trying to make sense of their loss, and raising painful questions about how the state reconciles the need to establish criminal responsibility with the very human suffering of those who have already lost so much.
On Friday, British father Josh Foster was fined €3,000 by Paphos district court after admitting causing the death of his three-year-old son, who fell from a fourth-floor hotel window in Chlorakas in July.
The court recognised the circumstances of the father’s negligence and took into account the profound suffering already endured by the family as well as the punishment that will stay with Foster for the rest of his life.
Only weeks earlier, the parents of a three-year-old boy who fell to his death from the sixth floor of an apartment building in Engomi had been arrested and detained for five days before being released without charge.
Meanwhile, a Bulgarian father remains in custody in the British bases following the deaths of his two sons, aged eight and ten, who were found inside a parked car in Xylofagou in June.
It is true that the circumstances of the three cases differ considerably, as do the legal proceedings that followed but together they have brought renewed attention to what seems to be a delicate balance between investigating possible criminal negligence, protecting children and recognising the immense suffering of families already confronting a horrible and irreversible loss.
Childhood accidents have long been a major public health concern across Europe; in its 2008 European Report on Child Injury Prevention, the World Health Organisation estimated that 42,000 children and adolescents under the age of 20 died from unintentional injuries including road traffic crashes, drowning, poisoning, thermal injuries and falls across its European Region.
More recently, in its 2020 report on violence and injuries, the WHO found that injuries remained the second leading cause of death among children aged five to 14, while the gap in injury mortality between middle-income and high-income countries had widened for children under 15, despite an overall decline in injury-related deaths since 2000. The United Nations’ latest report on child mortality, published in March 2026, also identifies drowning and road traffic injuries among the leading causes of death in older children, underlining the continuing toll of accidents despite decades of progress in reducing childhood mortality.
Cyprus itself recognised the scale of the problem when it adopted its National Action Plan for the Prevention of Childhood Injuries and Poisonings for 2016 to 2020. The strategy sought to reduce childhood injury deaths, as well as the frequency and severity of injuries, by 30 per cent, addressing risks including road accidents, falls, drowning, burns, poisoning and suffocation.
The Commissioner for Children’s Rights Elena Perikleous has told the Cyprus Mail that while Cyprus has established procedures and protocols governing the response of individual services, there is a need for a more comprehensive framework connecting criminal investigations, child protection, family support and the examination of possible institutional shortcomings.
“The protection of children’s rights cannot depend on the fragmented activation of different services,” she said.
“What is needed is a coherent framework, with clear responsibilities, coordination and accountability.”
The commissioner explained that the death of a child raises fundamental questions concerning the right to life, survival and development. The state’s responsibility, she said, extends beyond investigating the circumstances of a death to ensuring that families have access to services that enable them to care for their children safely.
Any coordinated response should address four questions from the outset. What happened to the child, whether abuse or neglect may have been involved, whether other children require immediate protection and whether failures within the system need to be corrected.
She stressed that the loss of a child does not place a parent beyond the reach of criminal law. Equally, however, the devastating consequences of an accident should not automatically lead to arrest or detention.
“The loss of a child does not exempt a parent from criminal investigation when there is evidence giving rise to reasonable suspicion that an offence has been committed,” she said.
“Nor, however, does the tragic nature of the outcome automatically justify deprivation of liberty.”
She said arrest and detention must be individually assessed and justified, taking into account the specific purpose of the investigation, including whether there is a risk of interference with witnesses or evidence, absconding or another genuine concern.
“Arrest and detention should be a measure of last resort, last for the shortest possible period and be authorised by a court,” she said, emphasising that any deprivation of liberty must be necessary and proportionate.
The commissioner’s concerns about proportionality were echoed by prominent lawyer Chris Triantafyllides, who questioned whether sufficient consideration is given to the human suffering already endured by parents caught up in such investigations.
Speaking to the Cyprus Mail, Triantafyllides said that, from what he has observed, the authorities do not always appear to attach sufficient weight to the sensitivity of the circumstances or the psychological burden carried by a parent who has just lost a child.
He stressed that every case must be judged on its own facts, but argued that the human factor should acquire particular significance once the first days following a tragedy have passed.
The commissioner also cautioned against drawing comparisons between cases without knowledge of the evidence, even where the circumstances may appear similar.
“Cases that appear similar may differ substantially in their circumstances. Equality before the law does not mean identical treatment of dissimilar cases,” she said.
“What must be common is the procedure and the assessment criteria, so as to avoid the automatic criminalisation of a tragic accident.”
She stressed that every child has the same rights and that every incident raising child protection concerns must be treated with the same institutional seriousness.
Beyond criminal responsibility, the commissioner believes Cyprus needs a permanent mechanism to examine child deaths and serious injuries more broadly, including whether opportunities for intervention or prevention were missed.
“A criminal investigation examines whether an offence has been committed,” she said.
“We believe that, in parallel, we need a permanent mechanism to examine what preceded the incident, whether there were indications of danger and whether the services knew and could have intervened.”
Such a mechanism, she explained, should also examine shortcomings in existing practices or legislation and identify changes needed to prevent similar tragedies.
She placed particular emphasis on the availability of safe and affordable childcare, especially for working parents, as part of the wider responsibility of the state to protect children.
“Every death or serious injury of a child should lead the state to address whatever shortcomings it may have revealed,” she said.
“It is not sufficient, although necessary, to seek those responsible after every tragedy. A parallel objective must be to prevent the next one.”
The commissioner also highlighted the needs of children who survive the death of a sibling, particularly when the tragedy is followed by the arrest or detention of a parent.
Social Welfare Services already have responsibility for assessing and protecting children and may, where the law permits, assume their care.
However, she said the assessment should begin immediately, alongside the criminal investigation, and should extend beyond identifying possible dangers.
“A child who has lost a brother or sister, possibly also experiencing separation from a parent, needs immediate and individualised psychosocial support.”
Psychological support is another important part of the state’s response to such tragedies.
Dr Kyriacos Platritis, president of the Pancyprian Psychologists Association, told the Cyprus Mail that mechanisms are already in place to provide psychological assistance in emergencies, with the profession’s capacity to respond having developed considerably during the Covid pandemic.
“We now have an immediate response. We have developed a mechanism and we are able to respond,” he said.
He explained that the experience of the pandemic had strengthened emergency management arrangements, as psychologists were required to operate under exceptional circumstances for a prolonged period.
Requests for assistance are received from the competent authorities, including the police and Social Welfare Services, after which the necessary assessment is carried out.
His comments underline that psychological intervention is already available through existing arrangements, while the commissioner’s proposal concerns how the various services and their responsibilities could be brought together within a more coordinated framework.
The commissioner said the different authorities involved in such cases have distinct but parallel responsibilities. What is needed, in her view, is an agreed protocol setting out their respective roles, arrangements for exchanging information and a designated coordinator for each case.
She confirmed that her office has already begun exploring how such arrangements could be established.
“I consider it necessary to examine the adequacy of the existing framework and the possibility of establishing a permanent mechanism for cooperation between services,” she said.
“My office is moving in this direction. I have already made contacts, preliminary discussions have taken place and we will certainly propose the framework.”
The commissioner emphasised that her office’s responsibility is not confined to identifying possible violations of children’s rights, but also includes promoting institutional changes that can improve protection.
“Our mission does not end with highlighting possible violations of rights. We seek to translate the conclusions into prevention policies and practices.”