Custody battles - fathers claim discrimination

Custody battles - fathers claim discrimination

Photo: archive of Radio Prague

All around the world, divorces are no longer rare and ever more children are caught up in fierce custody battles. Last week, Radio Prague reported about a case in which ten year old Honza had a nervous breakdown after his desperate father, who had not seen him for two years despite having visiting rights, picked him up at school, accompanied by a bailiff and a social worker. The case resulted in much discussion on whether it was right to take such a drastic step. It may have been within the law but were the child's feelings considered? A legitimate question which should be followed by another, what should the father have done instead? A judge had allowed him to see his son two years ago but the boy's mother prevented them from ever meeting and the courts then did nothing.

" My name is Daniel Nebesky and I'm a sociologist. I also studied psychology and aesthetics and I think that my knowledge of law is on the same level as that of lawyers in the Czech Republic. As regards family law, I think I know it a little bit better than them [laughing] because I have been interested in it for over twenty years and I also studied it. In 1988, I founded the Union of Fathers - fathers for the rights of children. In the Czech Republic, every year in the last thirty to forty years, there are a little under 30,000 divorces involving a little over 30,000 children. After the judgement, mothers are given custody of the children in 92-94% of cases and fathers only from six percent of cases."

Although no official study has been done to determine how many divorced fathers, prevented from seeing their children, are fighting for their rights in court, it is quite clear that Honza's father is one of many going through this ordeal. According to Czech law, a divorced father has the right to see his child every fortnight for a weekend. Should the child's mother prevent him from this right, he can request a judge send a court notice, ordering the mother not to block visiting rights. If she fails to respect the order, she can face a fine of up to 50,000 Czech crowns or even a one year prison sentence. But in most cases, the courts do not go through with the punishment. Daniel Nebesky:

"In the 1950s, there were instructions in this country that for biological reasons, children have to be at their mothers. In June there was an international congress in Prague at which a psychologist said that in 1983, the State Commission for Population was given unofficial instructions that children have to be given only to their mothers because they are better at educating their children. Our family law saw a little change as of August 1, 1998. But this new law is not used at the courts. The situation is the same as it was ten or twenty years ago. Surely it's necessary to say that it is a crazy discrimination of fathers. Not every father is bad and not every mother is good."

The respected human rights lawyer, Klara Vesela-Samkova, agrees:

"I remember a case when I represented a father and the judge who was a relatively young woman said 'I as a mother fully understand the defendant'. In this moment, as the legal representative of the father, I began to scream. It is a fact that eighty or ninety percent of family courts are made of women with these own personal experiences. The judges are females."

Traditionally, the man has always been the head of the family as chief breadwinner, while his wife took care of the household and was responsible for the upbringing of the children. But the role of the Czech father has changed dramatically in the past twenty years. The increasing number of divorces has forced men to become independent, often resulting in an increasing interest to be a significant part of their child's life. Klara Vesela-Samkova:

"It is also about the role of women in our society because to have a child here means to really sacrifice oneself. Many women perceive it as an end to their career, their won money, and a sacrifice of their own independency. Therefore, they are generally awfully tired and are very bitter because they feel it is a huge injustice. That is why they suppose that they have a right to their children for all time."

DN: "We have a social organisation that is fighting for the rights of children. It is possible to request that the mother is ordered to take the child to this organisation, where there also are psychologists. She then has to leave before the father comes to take the child after a few minutes. In ninety percent of cases, the mothers say that the children do not want to go with their fathers but when it [the meeting] is monitored through the special mirrored window, like you see at police stations, you see that immediately after the mother leaves, the child has a very good connection to the father."

Out of desperation and disappointment with the lack of interest from Czech courts, five fathers have decided to take their case to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, demanding compensation from the Czech state for not getting to see their children. Although the Court in recent months, has proven to support the rights of Czech citizens, Daniel Nebesky is sceptical and believes the only way to change the system is through discussion:

"If this court will think like in the other cases, then they have a chance to win. But then I don't know what will happen to our economy. It will start with these five fathers, in the future it could be ten or twenty thousand and then our state's money will not be enough. I think it will be very hard for the Human Rights Court in Strasbourg. I think if a film like the US film Kramer vs. Kramer were made it [the issue] would be discussed more on the radio or in the newspapers. I can say that until now, there was no official discussion on this problem on TV. It's interesting because it is possible to say that in this country, the number of people attacked [affected] by such cases - children, fathers, and grandparents - in the last thirty years could amount to some four million. But until now, there was not one discussion on television."

KS: "We have a Czech speciality that the women suppose it is the women who can take care of the children, earn the money, and feed the family too. Of course, after the professional women especially got the experience of economic independency, they had to understand that the roles are switched and I think that now the fathers call [prepare] themselves for the new role and the women are those who are stuck."