Guardianship shall be established with the aim of exercising, protecting and defending the rights and interests of a legally incapable person. Curatorship shall be established with the aim of protecting and defending the rights and interests of a person of limited active capacity.

The guardian and the curator shall represent their wards under law and shall defend the rights and interests of legally incapable persons or persons of limited active capacity without any special authorization. The guardian shall be entitled to enter into all the necessary transactions in the interests and in behalf of the represented legally incapable ward. The curator shall give consent for the ward of limited active capacity to enter into a transaction the ward would not be permitted to enter into independently and shall also help the ward of limited competence to exercise his or her other rights and duties as well as protect his or her interests against third parties. Having declared a person legally incapable or of limited active capacity, the court shall designate the person’s guardian or curator without delay. Only a legally capable natural person may be designated a guardian or a curator provided he or she gives a written consent to that effect. Employees of educational, health care, police and other institutions as well as any person in possession of any knowledge of minors deprived of parental care or of the necessity to protect a minor’s rights and interests (cruel treatment of children by their parents, illness, death, departure or disappearance of the parents, failure of the parents to take back their children from educational or health care institutions, etc.) shall be obliged to notify immediately the State institution for the protection of the child’s rights of the child’s district of residence or their own district. Guardianship shall be established for children under the age of 14. Curatorship shall be established for children older than 14. An adult person declared legally incapable by the court shall be placed under guardianship by a court judgement. An adult person declared by the court to be of limited active capacity shall be placed under curatorship.