The fathers' rights movement has evolved in many countries. This article provides details about the fathers' rights movement in specific countries.
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Fathers' rights groups began in Australia in the 1970s with the founding of organizations such as the Lone Fathers Association. Other well-known groups include Equality for Fathers, Dads Against Discrimination, Dads in Distress, Fathers Without Rights, The Men's Confraternity and the Shared Parenting Council.[1] As with other fathers' rights activists, Australian organizations focus on issues of erosion of the family unit, custody, access, child support, domestic violence (including false allegations, and violence against men), child abuse, maintenance, the reintroduction of fault into divorce proceedings, biased and adversarial court systems and secrecy issues. Groups have successfully garnered media, as well as influence on politicians and legal reform.[1] On May 22, 2006, Australia passed the "Family Law Amendment (Shared Parental Responsibility) Act 2006" making both parents responsible for decisions about their child through the concept of ‘equal shared parental responsibility’.[2] The Act requires courts to consider an order that the child spend equal amounts of time with each parent under certain circumstances, but the Act does not state that courts must order that the child spend equal amounts of time with each parent.[2][3] While Dad's in Distress expressed both appreciation of the Act as a small step in the right direction and concern whether the changes would be taken seriously by Family Law Practitioners[4] and Barry Williams, national president and founder of the Lone Fathers Association, stated, "I think these new laws are going to be the best in 30 years",[5] The Men's Confraternity welcomed the changes but also expressed disppointment and stated that the Act does not "force the Court to view parents as equals."[6][7]
Fathers' rights groups in Australia have condemned the actions of a militant men's group that engaged in criminal activities, including stalking and harassment.[8]
Since Sep 2006 the Belgian federal law on "co-parenté" came into effect. It introduced a presumption of dual location or shared residency which by law should be taken into serious consideration and thorough investigation with priority in each individual case by the Belgian family courts and judges on the request of either one of the divorcing parents separately. Immediate court-access can also be requested by one parent, when additional reinforcement orders are necessary.
In an attempt to pass a law creating a rebuttable presumption for shared parenting, several fathers' rights groups launched an action in the Federal Court of Canada to overturn the child custody provisions of the existing federal Divorce Act claiming that the legal test used to decide which parent obtains custody is biased against fathers, thereby violating the discrimination based on sex provisions of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, as well as the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.[9]
The Canadian Equal Parenting Council, a coalition of 40 member organizations and worldwide affiliates stated that it is pleased with a proposed amendment to the Divorce Act to create a presumption for equal parenting.[10]
Separation of the parents has no effect on the rules governing the awarding of parental authority. Parental authority continues to be exercised jointly except if in the interest of the child the exercise of this authority must be entrusted to only one of the parents.[11]
In Germany, one parent may apply to the family court for sole right of custody. The court will agree to such an application if the removal of joint custody and transfer of custody to one parent is in the child’s best interests.[12]
Non-married Fathers; To obtain "Shared Custody" (and any real rights concerning children) was only possible through marriage or by the mother signing a declaration of shared custody. Thus, sole custody (for the father) is of course not realistic under the current German family law. The German Supreme Court (Bundesverfassungericht) has decided on 21 July 2010 that the actual Family Law is against the German Constitution Law.[13] For a very detailed explanation of the legal situation, see Wikipedia German web page;[14]
Mathieu Carriere, a well-known German actor, who after the mother and sole custodian of his 8-year old daughter sued him for allowing several newspapers to publish pictures of Carriere with his daughter, decided to refuse to pay a 5,000 Euro fine associated with the lawsuit and instead announced publicly that he would be serving a 10-day prison sentence in support of the campaign for equal rights for both parents following divorce or separation.[15]
There are a lot engaed communities to change the rights like Blauer-Weihnachtsmann.de,[16] Väteraufbruch or Väter helfen Väter.
One million divorced fathers live in Greece. Under the Greek law, there is no option for co-responsibility between parents in divorce. In 99,9% of the cases the mothers take the sole and exclusive authority of the children. The association of Greek fathers for justice was created in December 2004, by Dr Spitalas Nicolas, under the name of the SYGAPA. Dr Spitalas organized the first international Congress of family, father's rights, Equality and Justice in January 2009.
Shared parenting cannot be requested by one parent, it is unregulated. The Family Court must 'place the children' and it must suspend the other parents' rights after divorce/separation. Any other formation requires mutual agreement between the parents. Post-divorce equal shared parenting is disfavoured resulting in penetration of 0.1% of divorce cases annual. State control over family life is overwhelming while legislation has been slow and avoided public debates. The Family Law Act in power is the same that had been ordered by the stalinist dictator Mátyás Rákosi in 1952[17]. Judges are not seeking any form of equality regarding legal status, economic situation or family work sharing of the parents. After the court approval an unfair agreement cannot be revoked. A father's returning from abroad is not a major change of circumstances. Court policy allows mothers for an unlimited replacement of personal custody duties by 3rd parties (babysitters) although it has been against the Constitution. While it is known that every third homeless person is a divorced father[18], policy makers see woman divorce (71%) even for pure financial purpose as a "normal step", almost as a social benefit provided by the state.
In principle, during divorce or separation the state takes away the presence and caring of one parent and the revenue share of the other parent from the children. In other words divorce in Dual Earner Dual Carer family means 100% increase in child raising costs for one of the parents. The "the best interest" is identical with the court decision without detailed reasoning. Therefore, the exclusion of FLA (Csjt 1952) Art. 69/A, 72 and 72/A should be considered before a mixed marriage, this also avoids any conflict with Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights Right to private and family life. Note that there are no sanctions against family value offenders, e.g. family home leaver spouse, first kidnapper parent. Divorcing for 'fault' does not exist.
Low women employment and poor birth rate figures since 1980's are often blamed on maternalism. The real face of Hungarian maternalism appears in the FLA: it is prohibited for the Family Court to decide for equality, even when both parents are apt and willing to continue parenting. The radical deviation from the constitutional equality undermines goals of many women movements: there is no such family work sharing which is an expectation during marriage, but would become prohibited by law once divorce/separation. It has been observed that FLA accounts for about 1/3 part of the family policy. In spite of advanced child related benefits in place, a father abusive FLA & court practice becomes showstopper for birth or marriage rates [19].
The main organisation is non-political, called the Association of Divorce Fathers, Hungary (ADF), it was founded in 1989 when NGO's became possible again after 40 years. ADF has Prof. Miklós Hernádi, the writer, as honorary president. The current slogan is "Apák összefognak gyermekeikért" (Fathers Unite for Their Children) [20]. ADF acitivities cover protests, media events, petitions, it offers Fathers'Day programs and free legal counselling.
An activist father group called Eurocsalád Workgroup was formed in 2005 focusing on the legal security of parenthood and family work sharing. A joint petition was followed by a father demonstration protesting against the practically impossible legal access to equal parenting (For the Law of Mind and Heart, 2008). The movement became active on the international scene: a father meeting called ESP-WG 2010 was held in Hotel Mercure Korona, Budapest with guests from 4 countries with the goal to join isolated efforts of local father NGO's into an EU level movement for equal shared parenting. Only 16 months later the Platform for European Fathers (PEF) was founded by 11 member countries in Brussels [21].
Major changes are foreseen in 2012: negative implications of massive dadlessness are being recognised, legislation activity slightly accelerates, and many of hard-line communist family judges will have been retired due to a law change.
See Men's rights movement in India
India is not a signatory to the Hague Convention for child custody cases.
There are many laws which discriminate against fathers and husbands. See Dowry law in India.
Shared parenting is usually only granted by the courts where the children are not a contentious issue and there is broad agreement on their upbringing education etc.[22] The Fathers Rights-Responsibility Party contested the 2007 Irish general election.[23] John Waters of The Irish Times frequently advocates improved father's rights in his weekly op-ed.
While the father's rights movement in Israel has been fighting severe and oppressive discrimination against men in the judicial and welfare system for decades - it wasn't until The Familists organized a conference December 2010 that the movement started to gain momentum. This is because Knesset Member Yulia Shamalov-Berkowitz vowed at that conference to publicly advocate for father's rights. She made good on her promise a hosted a follow-up conference in the Israeli Knesset on 15 Febraury 2011. This second conference not only attracted father's rights advocates nationwide, but gained media attention. Simultaneously Daniel Zer, a father fighting for his most basic parental rights, filed a Supreme Court petition which attracted fathers all over the country. As these factions became aware of each other's efforts in March 2011 - they joined forces under a new umbrella organization called the Coalition for Children and the Family. One of the first actions by the new coalition was to file a human rights complaint against the Israeli government with the United Nations on behalf of Israeli fathers. At the same time a Hebrew documentary was released called "Father's Rights" which portrayed the hardships of four fathers from different backgrounds over the course of six years. Currently Israeli fathers have multi-million dollar lawsuits pending both domestically and internationally alleging human right's violations and crimes against humanity.
On May 18, 2007, members of the Fathers' Armada protested to highlight their claim that only women have rights after a divorce. Delegates met with the Equal Opportunities Minister, Barbara Pollastrini, who pledged support.[24]
Father's Rights in Japan (FRIJ) and Children's Rights Network Japan [1] are campaigning to change the current legal position which allows the abduction of the child by the mother with no legal redress.[2] K Net is campaigning in Japanese.[25]
The translation of joint custody in Spanish is 'custodia compartida'. Recent changes in regional laws, as Aragon, establish joint custody as preferency regim for children after the divorce of their parents. The INE, National Statistic Institute, offers fiable data on the custody (mother, father or joint custody): see: http://www.ine.es/jaxi/menu.do?type=pcaxis&path=/t18/p420/p01/a2009/&file=pcaxis In 2009, 84,1% of the custody is only for mother, 5,6% only for father and 9,6% is joint custody. Father's Rights in Spain [CCPMI] http://www.ccpmi.eu PARTY of Father's Rights Shared Custodia (equal rights and obligations in the raising and the education of the children after the divorce).
Members of the fathers' rights movement raise awareness about the need for shared parenting in New Zealand by sponsoring an award-winning[26] website, holding meetings, and protesting publicly from their War-4-Kids wagon.[27] Fathers of New Zealand sponsors a website that offers advice to help fathers succeed in family court.[28]
Laws on Children were introduced in 1981.[29] Several changes has been made since then, the latest January 1, 2009. The letter of the laws are very similar to those of Germany. The Family Activist Movement started to become a force in Norway mid 1980s with the introduction of F2F (Foreningen 2 Foreldre).[30] Today F2F is by most Norwegian activists considered as a political organisation that speak according to what the government want to be the official truth, that mothers are best fit to be single parents. However, several researchers in Norway have found that mothers are actually more dangerous to their children than fathers.[31]
In 2004 the first Men's Day (October 7) was held in Oslo.[32] Only the Ombud of Gender Equality was represented and held a speech in front of Stortinget (The Parliament) in 2004. All other public institutions, including the Ombud for Children, refused to participate. The extreme radical feminist organisation, Ottar[33] have tried to ridicule the Men's Day, but there are still Family Activists that keep it as an official day to argue for Children-, Men's- and Fathers Rights.
In 2006 the organisation Far og Barn [Father and Child(ren)][34] was started. Later that year yet another important, and probably the most influential family organisation in Norway, was founded. Familiestiftelsen[35] was established in December 2006 partly after the Swedish model. Familiestiftelsen use the Swedish Pappa-Barn logo.
Since 2008 the Divorce Law has established shared parental responsibility. Some of the recent changes had the contribution of parental organizations as Associação Pais para Sempre and Associação Portuguesa para a Igualdade Parental e Direito dos Filhos [3] .
Polish Fathers want a rebuttable presumption for shared parenting in Polish law. There is a project of new law actually being prepared. The Polish Parliament should pass it shortly.
Active Fathers organizations are Inicjatywa Społeczna Porozumienie Rawskie PorozumienieRawskie.pl, Rodzice Pomorza and a web portal www.opiekarownowazna.pl. This groups are active to highlight their claim that only women have rights after a divorce. Delegates work in Senate and Parliament to pass the new coo parenting law.[36]
If one of the parents wants a change in custody, the question of custody may be decided by a court. The same applies to the questions of which of the parents the child is to live with and how access for the other parent is to be organised. In divorce proceedings, moreover, the court must, in the absence of a claim, award custody of the child to one of the parents if joint custody is manifestly incompatible with the welfare of the child. This Law, passed in 2006, has resulted in significant majority of all court cases in which sole custody is requested, being awarded to the mother.[37]
If a child is born to an unmarried mother, the mother gains sole custody automatically unless she elects to, in her sole decision, agree to shared custody. The same law in Germany was recently determined to be a violation of Human Rights by the EU court of Human Rights
http://www.pappa-barn.se/ is a lobby organisation in Sweden with a large membership of fathers and mothers supporting true equal gender rights in custody.
The Swedish courts rarely order high-conflict litigants to solve their problems with parenting courses, training courses, or mediators, but instead often award sole custody when it is requested. Sweden's statistics bureau reports that more than 90% of all such cases are ruled in favour of the mother.
Enforceability of visitation and joint custody is very difficult in Sweden, as there is no contempt of court, and the courts often will not apply fines or police support of visitation until the complaining parent has gone to court several times. Payment of court fees is often forced by the complaining parent, if the fines asked for are not granted, even if Grounds are clearly established.
In Sweden, which claims to be progressive and promote Gender Equality, has reports 128,000 women currently hold SOLE custody of their children (mostly against the father's wishes) and 11,000 men hold SOLE custody of their children, a ration of more than 11:1 in favour of women.[38]
Parental Alienation and Parental Alienation Syndrome are still unrecognized by the courts and psychologists of Sweden. Among many men's groups and NPOs working to raise public awareness of the importance of the father for the psychosocial development of the child, the Alliance for the Child ("Allians för Barnen") is a social initiative to connect interdisciplinary scholars into a competence network engaging in informing political decision-makers in Sweden, Scandinavia and Europe about Parental Alienation Disorder (PAD). This condition, coined by Professor William Bernet, Professor of Psychiatry at Vanderbilt University, USA, is defined as one of several forms of emotional child abuse. Its website provides knowledge resources and documents on the topic (http://sites.google.com/site/coleur/pas). It has been active since the late 70's in media by publishing articles in the press (Svenska Dagbladet, Brännpunkt: Barns rätt till två föräldrar - "Children's rights to two parents", Dec 27, 1979), in Swedish Radio (P1: Tendens), and, recently on the social debate media Newsmill (Ny Lag behövs till stöd för barn som berövas sina pappor - "A new law is required to support children deprived of their fathers") where its research-based argument translates into a social critique: http://www.newsmill.se/artikel/2010/03/23/ny-lag-behovs-till-stod-for-barn-som-berovas-sina-pappor .
Sweden is considered the #1 country in the world for Mothers to live.
The fathers' rights movement in the UK consists of a variety of groups, ranging from charities, self-help groups to civil disobedience activists. The movement can be traced to the founding in 1974 of Families Need Fathers, though the organization does not see itself as a fathers' rights organisation, pointing out that its primary focus is on the children's right to have a meaningful relationship with their fathers. FNF provides self-help support groups, promotes research into shared parenting, and lobbies political for legal changes in the family law system in the UK. It has been credited with several successes.[39] The founding of Fathers 4 Justice in 2003 brought the cause of fathers' rights to public attention with high-profile stunts with members dressing as comic book superheroes and other easily recognizable characters to scale public buildings and monuments. With time their protests became increasingly controversial, and internal strife divided the group. It was officially disbanded in January 2006 following a suggestion that Prime Minister Tony Blair's son be briefly kidnapped, though further protests by a F4J splinter group, the 'Real F4J', have occurred. Other fathers' rights activists have been criticized for harassment, threats and illegal activities, including fraud.[40][41] In the UK, fathers' rights groups have advocated for changes to the Child Support Act including child support, shared parenting and access to children[42] and lack of enforcement of court orders.[43][44] Pressure from the fathers' movement has influenced the UK Government, which published a draft Children (Contact) and Adoption Bill in February 2005[45] that aims to widen judges' powers in dealing with parents who obstruct their ex-partner from seeing their children.
Bob Geldof reported that of the approximately 15,000 custodial cases that are resolved in family courts each year, only 7% of fathers in the UK are allowed to live with their children, and that 4 out of 10 fathers lose all touch with their children permanently. He reports that family courts think it extremely unhealthy for a man to articulate his love for his children. He states that 1 in 4 children live in single parent homes, children who grow up without their fathers are 5 times as likely to be unemployed and 3 times as likely to be involved in crime, 80% of all social housing is for single parent families, and that taxpayer costs for fatherlessness are at least £15B per year.[46]
The fathers’ rights movement in the US emerged with the founding of Divorce Racket Busters in California in 1960 to protest Californian divorce laws which they stated discriminated against men in alimony, child support settlements and in a presumption of maternal custody. The group expanded into other states, changing its name to Divorce Reform in 1961.[47] With the increase in divorce rates in the 1960s and 1970s, more local grassroots men’s organization grew up devoted to divorce reform,[47] and by the 1980s, there were a total of more than 200 fathers’ rights groups active in almost every state.[48] These groups focused their actions on what they viewed as sex discrimination in family law, by engaging in political activities such as lobbying state legislatures, filing class action suits, picketing courthouses, and monitoring judges’ decisions through “court watches”.[47] The 1990s saw the emergence of new and larger organizations such as National Fatherhood Initiative and the American Fathers coalition.[48] Several attempts have been made to found a national organization to which local fathers’ rights organizations could belong, however this has been difficult to achieve. As a result the movement remains mainly a loose coalition of local groups.[47]
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