Fathers gain greater rights in child custody battles
A The Czech
Republic has a high
divorce rate. Even though property nearly always becomes an issue, the biggest
problem is often the custody of children. In most cases in the Czech Republic
mothers are given full custody, only in 7 or 8 percent it is the father. But
now it seems that a decision of the Czech
Constitutional Court could bring a crucial change. Mr. Slavíček complained
about a decision by a lower court which had limited his contact with his
children only to every second weekend, but the Constitutional Court ruled that courts
should be less reluctant when
deciding about shared custody between divorced parents.
B Many Czech fathers feel discriminated by court decisions, and many of
them have appealed to higher instances, even to European Court of Justice in Strasbourg. But Luboš
Patera from the Justice for Children Association says it is not the legislation
but deeply rooted stereotypes that determine the courts’ decisions. “The
legislation is good. Regarding the care of children laws do not discriminate
either of the two parents. Unfortunately the problem is in the wrong
application of the law, and in the attitude of judges. Most judges in these
cases are women.”
C The most common practice is that mothers get full custody of their
children, and the fathers have the right to see them once every two weeks. But
many fathers are unsatisfied with this situation. They would like shared
custody to be applied more often. One father, who wished to remain anonymous,
achieved this goal, but it took him six long years. “Initially it was very wild
separation. My son was abducted by
my wife and I was looking for him for a couple of months. I was advised by my
lawyer not only to find my son, but also to abduct him to get some attention
from the court. That’s what I did, but after two months my wife had my son back
again. That’s the first period of a very tenuous and terrible legal battle that
went on for six years, in which eventually shared custody was achieved.”
D Michaela Marksová Tominová from the Social Affairs Ministry says that
the current situation is rooted in the widely held prejudice that a mother will
always take better care of a child than a father. “I discussed this matter with
some social workers and judges, and I was told that if the judge is not able to
decide, they somehow feel that the mother is always responsible. The truth is
that it’s just a stereotype.”
E Although in many areas of social life it is women who are
discriminated, when it comes to custody of children in divorced families, it is
men who are complaining about unequal treatment. Attitudes towards the role of
the genders are changing rapidly in the Czech Republic,
and with them, long-held stereotypes are also gradually being undermined.
abducted – unesený
crucial change – klíčová
změna
reluctant – neochotný
1) Read the article and match each of the headings to a paragraph.
1 Problem is in the wrong
application of the law
2 Stereotypical decisions
of judges
3 The situation is slowly
changing
4 Mr. Slavíček succeed by
the Czech Constitutional Court
5 Patera’s son was abducted
2) Read the article and answer the questions.
1 What is the article about?
2 What was Mr. Slavíček’s
success?
3 What is Luboš Patera’s
problem?
4 What does Michaela
Marksová Tominová think?
5 How does the situation
change?
3) Explain the following words.
1 high divorce rate
2 property
3 custody
4 separation
5 stereotype
4) Answer the following questions.
What is a marriage? What is
a divorce? What are types of child custody? What do they mean?
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