Family Code: Three reasons to change the denomination Parental Authority for Parental Responsibility.
For a long time, the half-truth, the distortion of ideas and the reiteration of lies have been used as sharp weapons in Social Networks to take out of context and confuse the public on issues that are of interest due to their high sensitivity or may create discontent and a high rate of unfavorable opinions in the population.
A text that is not yet final, since it will only be like this after the Referendum where we will vote yes or no based on the proposals that will be received in these three months.
However, almost parallel to the process, in Social Networks and outside of them, a crude campaign of manipulation of its contents began, supported by images, video and even the so-called pictolines for boys and girls, whose only objective, more than defending positions, consists of attacking the reality of what really appears in the Project proposal and sometimes, the old technique of also going against the messengers.
Many have been the issues manipulated and varied and even innovative reasons for being excluded from the Project. However, we cannot forget that reasonableness must prevail in what is proposed, only in this way can we affirm that we are really participating in a process of collective construction.
One of the most "taken and brought" issues has been the substitution of the Term Patria Potestad by that of Parental Responsibility. I confess that I did not expect this Title to win the palms in the first two weeks of Consultation.
It is enough to take a simple look at the Networks or walk through the streets, to hear criteria that parents in Cuba will lose the "Paternal Potestad" over their sons and daughters, that now the boys and girls will be able to do what they want at the moment they want and if the parents oppose, then they would end up in a judicial process that deprives them of it (Paternal Potestad), and thus a whole series of arguments far removed from reality that in most cases are the result of repeating what someone else said or thought he understood about the contents of the Family Code Project. Hence, the need to study the text is continually stressed.
What does the Code say?
In this sense and seeking to clarify the issue, we share as part of the Law Project, Family Code, the reflections of Dr. Yamila González Ferrer, Vice President of the National Union of Jurists of Cuba and National Coordinator of the Project Justice in Key of Gender, Equal Rights between Women and Men:
The name change from parental authority to parental responsibility, which has generated so many comments, misrepresentations and manipulations on social networks in recent days, has a foundation that is as simple as it is profound: it responds to the Cuban family reality that has been transforming according to with the vision of rights in the treatment of children and is based on three reasons that I explain below:
Reason No. 1. JOINT OWNERSHIP AND EXERCISE: The ownership and exercise of that parental authority has been joint for a long time. In Cuba, legally speaking, it has existed since 1950 and was strengthened by the Family Code of 1975, which placed equality between men and women at the highest level for its time.
This means that mothers and fathers have the same level of responsibility, functions, duties, rights and obligations. That unique and indisputable power of the man, father, almighty, has not been applied for a long time in the vast majority of Cuban families, so it makes no sense to maintain a term that is in disuse in practice.
In the Project, this ownership and joint and shared exercise or also called co-responsibility is reflected in articles 133.2, 134, 135 and 136, among others, and applies to any family model.
Reason No. 2. RIGHTS OF GIRLS, CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS: Children and adolescents are subjects of rights, this means that they are not objects or property of their mothers and fathers. They are human beings in formation and development and in order for them to be emotionally strong, stable and useful people for society, they need to be educated with a lot of love and respect. They must take into account their progressive autonomy, this means that as they grow, mature and acquire their own criteria on things, they can make decisions, assume responsibilities and exercise their rights. This implies that the discipline and limits that mothers and fathers have must be based on reasoning, reflection and not imposition and violence.
The 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child, signed and ratified by Cuba in 1990, challenged mothers and fathers from all over the world to exercise motherhood and fatherhood in a very different way than our great-grandparents did. Tax authority based on fear must be replaced by moral authority based on love.
Read article 133 in relation to articles 5 and 7 of the Project and there you will have the key to what the best interest means and the elements that the Court must assess in situations of conflict that are brought to its attention.
Also carefully analyze article 6, which is the one that refers to the right of children and adolescents not to be separated from their mothers, fathers and family unless it is strictly necessary as a result of serious non-compliance or the impossible exercise of parental responsibilities, in order to protect them and should always be considered as measures of last resort and reviewed periodically.
Reason No. 3. TEMPORARY EXERCISE IN CHARGE OF OTHER RELATIVES OR AFFECTIVELY CLOSE PERSONS: Although the ownership of parental responsibility is exclusive, as a rule, of mothers and fathers, the exercise of this is not always in their hands. For example, how many grandmothers, aunts, uncles, stepmothers or stepfathers are caring for children and adolescents at the request of their mothers and fathers when they leave the country for personal or work reasons? However, currently this care of relatives or emotionally close people is carried out outside the law, which brings serious problems when it is necessary to make decisions that directly affect children.
The Family Code Project incorporates figures that respond to these situations, such as the voluntary delegation of parental responsibility (articles 141 and 178) and custody and temporary care in favor of grandparents and other relatives or emotionally close people (article 165).
Study the project, analyze it as a whole, do not get carried away by what they tell you, or by the interpretations of other people.
Title V on Parental Responsibility, far from limiting, weakening or affecting maternal and paternal responsibility, strengthens and enriches it. As the teenage son told a friend the other day: Mommy, with this Code you and daddy will have to learn to be better parents”.
And let's not forget, that this is the Code of additions and multiplications, of alternatives and options.Taken from artemisadiario