PE01528: Child court reform

Hi John I agree with what you say but unfortunately we don't have the modern society others do even tho we have the legal system to make it that. I am also unsure if you agree with shared parenting or not but I cannot disagree with your figures and judgement on human rights etc as the government and legal system preach to other countries but cannot uphold the values they expect other countries to uphold.

John

22:28 on 03 Jun 2014

In Sweden separated parents share custody roughly 50:50 in 28% of cases. In the UK the equivalent figure is 3.2%. I don't know of any comparative research on long term outcomes for children of separated parents in the two countries but I am willing to bet good money that the Swedish children do better, and certainly no worse. There is a huge body of research that supports the benefits of shared parenting post separation. The really sad thing is that I do not think there should be a need for any change in the law. The courts in Scotland and the rest of the UK are routinely ignoring their existing duties under the Gender Equality Duty(Equality Act 2010) and European Convention on Human Rights. Care for and of children is a core part of private and family life and thus covered by Article 8 of the ECHR. Gender discrimination with regard to the other Articles is prohibited by Article 14. Thus children have an equal right to care from both parents regardless of their gender and parents have an equal right to provide care for their children regardless of their gender. The best interests of children do of course rightly take precedence over their rights, and those of their parents but my point is that any interpretation of duties under the GED and ECHR mean that the starting point should already be 50:50 care or near 50:50 care. It is worth examining why the figures for the UK are so much worse than for other more enlightened countries. Personally I think it is due to a number of factors including the malign influence of the CSA, the strength of a misguided misandrist domestic abuse lobby and the vested interests of the legal profession. The CSA takes account of only one parent's income for child maintenance calculations. 97% of the time this parent is male. This means that some mothers stand to make vast amounts of money from their exs by abdicating their own financial responsibility to their children and limiting child contact with their ex.

John

15:54 on 31 May 2014

Why is it that a country like ours is stuck in the dark ages when it comes to children. Studies have proved that both parents having shared custody means the child grows feeling loved and not dismissed or up unloved by the other parent. Why does the courts still think the mother should have all the power and the father should only see their child once a week or even fortnightly. It should be half or close to it if both are fit parents. Courts should be made if both oarents are fit to have a near 50 50 split so the children see both parents and their external families fully. Scotland says they are a progressive country but lack the basic needs for children and their parents. This has to be changed for the sake of our children

Frank

11:45 on 25 May 2014