(c) Basler Zeitung May 26, 2011. By Andrea Elisabeth Knellwolf
The regulations in force in this country, according to which an unmarried father has no custody of their children without the mother's consent or, in the case of divorce, this is not examined in detail by the courts if the mother resists signaled, often lead to traumatic alienation between fathers and their children and violate the human rights convention. There is agreement on this, and the necessary revision of the Civil Code was initiated by a broadly supported postulate by CVP National Councilor Reto Wehrli in 2005.
The Swiss Minister of Justice, Federal Councilor Simonetta Sommaruga, caused a moment of shock in January of this year when she announced that she would withdraw the prepared template in order to supplement it with a revision of maintenance law.
It is to her positive credit that, after the desperate outcry from fathers' organizations against the delay in the custody bill, she is now open to the desire to quickly bring the new custody regulation before Parliament. It is certainly not acceptable that fathers do not fulfill their maintenance obligations correctly or that it is usually always the woman who has to go to the social welfare office after a divorce.
There is therefore nothing wrong with the imminent revision of maintenance law. The exponents of left-wing parties and women's organizations can perhaps even be met with a certain amount of understanding when they argue that equality for men in relation to custody arrangements is not a priority as long as equality for women has not yet been implemented in other areas.
The basic need for a lived parent-child relationship is too valuable to wage the battle of the sexes here.
However, the anti-feminism movement that has emerged in recent years shows how high the level of suffering is and how easy it has become to assign populist slogans to this complex and emotionally charged topic.
However, the basic need for a lived parent-child relationship is too elementary and too valuable for our society to allow the battle of the sexes to take place on this stage. What is now urgently needed is a legal basis that, at least in principle, offers the parties the prerequisites for concluding a partnership-based, sustainable and binding agreement for their situation.
However, the responsible courts and authorities are also called upon to help enforce the partnership idea. We should no longer speak of a father's maintenance obligation and a mother's right of custody, but rather of the joint custody and maintenance obligation for their child.
Andrea Elisabeth Knellwolf (CVP, BS) is a lawyer and heads the employee relations department at Novartis. She is an administrative board member of Suva and a member of the Executive Council of the Basel Social Conference