LETTER FROM CUZCO
The law “regulating shared custody of children and adolescents” entered into force in Peru on October 26. By making shared custody the preferred option after a separation, she has aroused the revolt of elected feminists and mothers’ associations, who denounce a law “dangerous”urging Parliament to repeal it.
If at first sight this law can be considered as a measure of social progress and equity, its detractors warn against its harmful consequences, accusing the text of underestimating situations of family violence. « [Elle] exposes children to situations of aggression by forcing them to live with their violent parents”is indignant in a press release the Coalition for a safe guard, which campaigns for the law to be declared unconstitutional.
Where once sole custody was the rule and joint custody the exception, now it is the other way around. The new law, which modifies several articles of the Children’s and Adolescents’ Code, stipulates that “custody will be assumed by both parents except in the event of impossibility or if this proves to be detrimental for the minor”. It also cancels the criterion which established that before its 3 years, the child had to stay with the mother.
Sole custody will therefore be reserved for “exceptional cases” who should be “duly reasoned”, in case of violence, negligence or abandonment for example. But “with the congestion of the legal proceedings, it will be difficult for the family judge to make a correct assessment and this will take timeworries Matilde Cobeña, in charge of children’s rights at the office of the Ombudsman. During this time, the child could be in danger”.
At the origin of the law, deputies of the populist right
At the origin of the law, deputies of Fuerza Popular (Popular Force), the party of the populist right. A few months ago, they launched a campaign, with the slogan: “More orphaned children with living parents”. Thanks to this law, they wanted to put an end to an injustice experienced by fathers, according to them: that of being deprived of custody of their child and, in some cases, visitation rights.
“Almost always granted to mothers in practice”, sole custody” has given rise to situations where one of the parents is a barrier to the child’s relationship with the other parent, can we read in the bill, with the aim of preventing or destroying the filial link. A conduct known as parental alienation,” and which represents a “subtle form of child abuse”.
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