Is it all just a storm in a teacup?
Will everything remain as it was? The fathers' expectations were great - and so was their hope for the Federal Council's draft law.
The first joy was even greater when reading the draft - after it was published at the end of January 2009.
VeV specialists, together with other organizations, have analyzed the draft in more detail over the last few weeks and have come to a sobering conclusion:
Strictly speaking, everything remains as it was !
Despite the positive-sounding legislative proposals, a closer look shows that this change in the law would hardly change anything.
This is particularly clear in Article 298b, which states: "At the request of a parent, the court shall assign parental custody to the father or mother if the best interests of the child require it."
In this case, however, the law does not specify any criteria under which circumstances this should take place. And worse still, the ominous concept of “children’s best interests” is once again relied upon here – a nonsense that has long been described as such by experts. Anything and everything can be justified with the so-called best interests of the child. In fact, with this article, parents, or more precisely fathers, can still be easily removed from the children's lives. Presumably, as is already the case today, the mother's reference to "constant disputes with the father" would be enough to cause backward judges to come to the conclusion that the father should be removed. All the more so because this would correspond to the established case law of the Federal Court.
Fathers and their children would once again be dependent on the judge's leeway if arbitrariness were given free rein. Fathers and their children could expect no legal certainty or equality under the law.
The desired equality of parents, even after separation, is not addressed in the draft law - nor is mediation or other means of de-escalating conflict resolution. Furthermore, discordant parents should take their dispute to court - with the well-known, damaging consequences for everyone involved.
Unfortunately, the Federal Council has not succeeded in proposing any real changes. There is a danger that these half-hearted proposals will degenerate shared custody into a paper tiger, toothless, useless and of no practical value in everyday life.
The draft was submitted by the umbrella organization of parent organizations GeCoBi is completely different There, parents are consistently held accountable for their responsibility - they remain responsible for raising children, even as parents who live separately.
They are burdened with both support and co-financing - in as equal parts as possible.
This model not only increases the acceptance of parenthood on both sides, it also improves the conditions for the children, both socially and emotionally.
In addition, our draft stipulates that, in the event of a separation, help should be offered to parents in the form of de-escalating measures such as mediation and advice, and even imposed on them. This is in contrast to today's offers such as courts and guardianship authorities, all of which usually promote escalation.
VeV, together with other organizations, will submit a response to the draft law in the next few days.
Contrary to our first hope, this will be very critical.
In our opinion, the Federal Council has missed a great opportunity and will have to make significant improvements to this draft.