During marriage parents have joint custody of minor children. From now, the general rule will be that this also remains so after divorce, a press release issued by Minister of Justice Roland Duncan stated.

 

Joint custody has the advantage that both parents can better appeal to their sense of responsibility towards the child. Only in cases that joint custody is considered harmful for the child will the court charge one of the parents with the sole custody after divorce.

 

When it concerns a child born out of wedlock then the mother has sole custody. The parents may, however, obtain joint custody by having an annotation placed in the custody register at the Civil Registry. They must both want that and the father must have acknowledged the child.

 

If the unwed mother does not approve of joint custody, the father can request the court to institute joint custody. The court will reject the request if joint custody is considered harmful for the child.

Condition is always that the father must have acknowledged the child. For that he needs the permission of the mother. Should the mother refuse to give permission for acknowledgment, then the father can request the court for alternative permission.

 

Alternative permission is denied if the interests of the child are harmed by the acknowledgment. Therefore, a father, who has not acknowledged the child but wants to obtain joint custody against the mother's will, has to request two permissions from the court: permission to acknowledge and permission for joint custody.

 

The National Ordinance also introduces a prohibition for parents, guardians and foster parents to apply mental or physical violence in the upbringing (education) or any other humiliating treatment.

Mistreatment of children often involves disciplinary measures which got out of hand. The law stipulates that no violence is to be used in the event of disciplinary measures. "Such can maybe do its bit in the combating of child abuse. Also the International Convention with reference to the rights of the child prohibits the application of violence in the upbringing (education)," Minister Duncan stated.