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Resolution 2079 (2015)
Equality and shared parental responsibility: the role of fathers
1. The Parliamentary Assembly has
consistently promoted gender equality in the workplace and in the private
sphere. Major improvements in this field, while still not sufficient,
can be observed in most member States of the Council of Europe.
Within families, equality between parents must be guaranteed and
promoted from the moment the child arrives. The involvement of both
parents in their child’s upbringing is beneficial for his or her
development. The role of fathers with regard to their children,
including very young children, needs to be better recognised and
properly valued.
2. Shared parental responsibility implies that parents have rights,
duties and responsibilities with regard to their children. The fact
is, however, that fathers are sometimes faced with laws, practices
and prejudices which can cause them to be deprived of sustained
relationships with their children. In its Resolution 1921 (2013) on gender
equality, reconciliation of private and working life and co-responsibility,
the Assembly called on the authorities of the member States to respect
the right of fathers to enjoy shared responsibility by ensuring
that family law foresees, in case of separation or divorce, the
possibility of joint custody of children, in their best interests,
based on mutual agreement between the parents.
3. The Assembly wishes to point out that respect for family life
is a fundamental right enshrined in Article 8 of the European Convention
on Human Rights (ETS No. 5) and numerous international legal instruments.
For a parent and child, being together is an essential part of family
life. Parent–child separation has irremediable effects on their
relationship. Such separation should only be ordered by a court
and only in exceptional circumstances entailing grave risks to the
interest of the child.
4. Furthermore, the Assembly firmly believes that developing
shared parental responsibility helps to transcend gender stereotypes
about the roles supposedly assigned to women and men within the
family and is simply a reflection of the sociological changes that
have taken place over the past fifty years in terms of how the private
and family sphere is organised.
5. In the light of these considerations, the Assembly calls on
the member States to:
5.1. sign
and/or ratify, if they have not already done so, the European Convention
on the Exercise of Children’s Rights (ETS No. 160) and the Convention
on Contact concerning Children (ETS No. 192);
5.2. sign and/or ratify, if they have not already done so,
the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International
Child Abduction and to properly implement it, and in particular
to ensure that the authorities responsible for enforcing it co-operate
and respond promptly;
5.3. ensure that parents have equal rights with regard to their
children under their laws and administrative practice, guaranteeing
each parent the right to be informed and to have a say in important decisions
affecting their child’s life and development, in the best interests
of the child;
5.4. remove from their laws any difference based on marital
status between parents who have acknowledged their child;
5.5. introduce into their laws the principle of shared residence
following a separation, limiting any exceptions to cases of child
abuse or neglect, or domestic violence, with the amount of time
for which the child lives with each parent being adjusted according
to the child’s needs and interests;
5.6. respect the right of children to be heard in all matters
that affect them when they are deemed to have a sufficient understanding
of the matters in question;
5.7. take shared residence arrangements into account when awarding
social benefits;
5.8. take all necessary steps to ensure that decisions relating
to children’s residence and to access rights are fully enforced,
particularly by following up complaints with respect to failure
to hand over a child;
5.9. encourage and, where appropriate, develop mediation within
the framework of judicial proceedings in family cases involving
children, in particular by instituting a court-ordered mandatory information
session, in order to make the parents aware that shared residence
may be an appropriate option in the best interests of the child,
and to work towards such a solution, by ensuring that mediators receive
appropriate training and by encouraging multidisciplinary co-operation
based on the “Cochem model”;
5.10. ensure that the professionals who come into contact with
children during court proceedings in family cases receive the necessary
interdisciplinary training on the specific rights and needs of children of
different age groups, as well as on proceedings that are adapted
to them, in accordance with the Council of Europe Guidelines on
child-friendly justice;
5.11. encourage parenting plans which enable parents to determine
the principal aspects of their children’s lives themselves and introduce
the possibility for children to request a review of arrangements that
directly affect them, in particular their place of residence;
5.12. introduce paid parental leave available to fathers, with
preference being given to the model of non-transferable periods
of leave.