Parental Rights
The term “Parental Rights”
Parental rights are commonly known as parental responsibilities. The law on parental responsibilities is laid down in the Children Act 1989. To have responsibilities to their children without any intervention from the court, two parents must be married. This also means that both have equal responsibilities to their children. Unmarried fathers didn’t have any automatic right to contact with his children and any responsibility to care for them until recently. To gain these rights, the father would have to make an agreement with the mother. If such an agreement could not be made, he could obtain a court order if he still wanted to formalize his position with the children. However, in December 2003, this harsh law changed. Since that December, if the father was present at the registration of the birth (meaning that his name is on the child’s birth certificate) his position has been equal to that of the mother. Keep in mind that the child’s welfare is the most important consideration and any arrangements made after the parents’ break-up must treat the children’s interests as paramount. Since the 1989 Act, parental rights concept has replaced that of parental responsibility. This means that the child has a right to have a relationship with both his parents rather than parents having rights to the child. The Children Act fights for the idea that there should be no need for court orders and that the parents should make arrangements for their children without any intervention of the law. This idea was meant to minimize the disputing situations parents often found themselves in after a break-up. This could be accomplished by changing the words ‘custody’ and ‘access’ to ‘residence’ and ‘contact’. The Act stipulates that it should not be a case of ‘winning’ or ‘losing’ but of making the best possible arrangements for all concerned, and especially the children, who might suffer the most from mistakes made by their parents.
Some of the parental responsibilities you have to your children
Parental responsibility is the legal concept that consists of the rights, duties, powers, responsibilities and authority that most parents have in respect of their children. The law does not define in detail what parental responsibility is. There is an entire list of responsibilities parents have to their children. We will only speak of the most important ones. The main responsibility is providing a home for the child. This means that you have the right to live with the child, protect and maintain him, and discipline the child. Besides these rights, you also have the right to choose and provide the child’s education and determine his religion. Other important responsibilities to your child are agreeing to the child’s medical treatment, naming the child and agreeing to any change of the child’s name. You, as a parent, can accompany the child outside the UK and agree to the child’s emigration, if this issue arises. Also, you are responsible for the child’s property and you can appoint a guardian for the child, if this is necessary. As a parent, you have the right to allow confidential information about the child to be disclosed. Not only parents can have parental responsibility, despite having equal moral rights to make decisions for their children where they have been equally involved in their care.
Who can have parental rights?
Parental responsibility is something which every mother automatically has. Fathers who are married to the mother of the child at the time of the child’s birth also automatically acquire the parental responsibility. However, in and after a divorce, most of the time, the father will receive only a few rights. Most of the rights are awarded to the mother of the children, as she is, in the eye of the law, the children’s main caregiver. It is recommended that unmarried fathers acquire parental responsibility to have virtually the same rights in bringing up the child as the married fathers. Another way to get parental rights is to marry the mother of your children. This will make you equal in rights to the mother. In order for a father to gain additional rights over the children, he can apply to the court. Only the judge can grant additional parental responsibilities. In considering the father’s application, the court will take the following facts into account:
§ the father’s reasons for applying for the order § the degree of commitment shown by the father to his child § the degree of attachment between father and child
After taking these into account, the court will decide if to accept or reject the application based on the child’s best interest. Also note that if child has been adopted, the adoptive parents are the child’s legal parents. This means that they automatically acquire parental responsibility. People other than a child’s natural parents can acquire parental responsibility if they have a residence order, are appointed as guardians and if are named in an emergency protection order (although parental responsibility is limited to taking reasonable steps to safeguard child’s welfare). The last way to get parental responsibility is to adopt the child.
