The Courts in Canada, and most particularly the Family Law Courts, routinely forget about the fundamental rights of children according to FACT Director, Brian Jenkins, writing in the Mountain News today.

“Monday, we celebrated National Child’s Day, the 16th anniversary of Canada’s signing of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child,” he wrote. “This is the very branch of government that is charged with protecting the rights of children and should be accountable to children and their families.

“Instead, we see both children and parents subjected to massive amounts of financial, emotional and psychological pressures encouraged by the courts and other government agencies – something that should truly be described as family violence.”

I know what he means. A case in our local paper today showed sickening consequences of a court decision based on law rather than honesty, decency and common sense. And a child suffered terribly and died because of it.

Why is it that the legal systems in so many Western countries have evolved as adversarial? By definition, the only possible winners in such a system are those running it or those professionally involved in it.

Those subjected to its whims and vagaries – sorry, its iron-clad ‘justice’ – are nothing more than milching cows and victims.

Yet family courts in particular, are supposedly predicated on the concept of ‘justice’ – that is, fairness, or rewarding virtue.

The UN’s Convention committed Canada to recognizing certain fundamental rights of children and their families:

  • the provision of the rights and responsibilities of parents and extended family members to provide guidance to their children
  • the statement that parents have a joint and primary responsibility for raising their children and that the State should support them in child-raising.
  • the conditions that children should not be separated from their parents except in extenuating circumstances, and where such separation must occur, the State must ensure that the child can maintain personal relations and direct contact with both parents on a regular basis even if the parents reside in different countries
  • the recognition that children have the right to enjoy their own culture and to practise their own religion and language.

National histories around the world are littered with stories of government agencies, churches and other welfare groups abusing the very rights of those entrusted to their care or their control.

OK, I know there are probably as many stories, if not victims, of parents who also abuse those entrusted to them.

But it makes my blood boil to think that those who take responsibility for the pastoral protection and nurturing of young souls seem so ready to abuse that fundamental trust.

Bleating will not change it, I know. But perhaps for those for whom honesty and decency are still virtues, such a dig in the ribs is enough to keep us awake at the wheel and striving to do the right thing. No matter the cost.

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Tagged with: 16th Anniversary • Branch Of Government • Brian Jenkins • Children And Parents • Concept Of Justice • Convention On The Rights Of The Child • Director Brian • Extenuating Circumstances • Family Courts • Family Law Courts • Family Violence • Fundamental Rights • Fundamental Rights Of Children • Massive Amounts • Other Government Agencies • Psychological Pressures • Rights And Responsibilities Of Parents • Rights Of Children • Rights Of The Child • Un Convention On The Rights Of The Child • Whims

Filed under: Divorce

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