By Denise Marquard / Tagesanzeiger, October 15, 2009
Nothing is possible at Zurich government offices without the mother present if the children need new documents.
Barbara Meier* and Bruno Müller* have two children together. They are unmarried, live together, and share custody. Bruno Müller recently went to District Office 7 to apply for a new identity card (ID) for his son. Although he brought his son's old documents, his own ID, and new passport photos, the office turned him down. Without the mother's power of attorney, he had no chance of obtaining an identity card for his son, the bewildered father was told.
The mother then sent a strongly worded letter to Mayor Corine Mauch (Social Democratic Party). "Joint custody is a farce," wrote Barbara Meier, adding: "If the document is useless, I see no point in it. Furthermore, it discriminates against my partner. He has many obligations, but no rights." The mayor's response is still pending.
Custody automatically goes to the mother
This problem is not an isolated case. It affects not only unmarried fathers, but also divorced ones. In Zurich alone, the number of parents sharing custody has tripled within five years: from 201 (2003) to 634 last year. And the trend is rising. Before that, joint custody didn't even exist. Parental custody automatically went to the mother.
But why didn't Bruno Müller receive an ID card for his son at the district office? Franz Behrens, head of the personnel registration office for the city of Zurich, says: "We have to clean up the mess that others have made." Because the custody arrangement wasn't registered in the computer system, the district office had no choice but to request a power of attorney from the mother for data protection reasons. There is still a legal loophole in this regard.
Marcel Studer, the data protection officer for the city of Zurich, confirms this. He is familiar with similar incidents. "At the federal level, the legal basis is incomplete," he says, referring to the Federal Civil Status Ordinance. This ordinance stipulates for all of Switzerland which events must be reported to and recorded by the civil registry offices. Joint custody is not among them. This has practical consequences: While civil registry offices are required to notify the guardianship authorities of the birth of a child to unmarried parents, the guardianship authorities have no obligation to report such events. They do not inform the civil registry office if unmarried or divorced parents share custody.
Unbureaucratic solution
This is about to change. Under pressure from parliament, Justice Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf (BDP) intends to eliminate this unequal treatment. According to Felix Schöbi, who is responsible for civil law at the Department of Justice, the federal government is planning a change in the law. This will make joint custody the norm for unmarried and divorced parents. Schöbi: "Only then will the problem of legitimizing unmarried or divorced fathers become obsolete."
Schöbi also offers a suggestion to the Zurich authorities on how they can resolve such cases in an unbureaucratic manner until then. "The district offices could already issue the ID cards to the fathers with custody rights if they can present the agreement with the guardianship authority."