A package of four bills aimed at modernising Family Law in Cyprus and bringing significant changes that will benefit children began to be discussed before the Legal Committee of the Parliament yesterday, following their resubmission by the Ministry of Justice.
The four bills have been pending since 2018 and are part of a total of eight bills that concern the broader modernisation of Family Law, prepared during the tenure of Ionas Nicolaou as Minister.
According to a letter to Parliament, Justice Minister Marios Hartsiotis stated that changes have been made to these bills based on the suggestions/observations received during consultations with various stakeholders, including the recommendations of the relevant parliamentary committee.
The first bill regulates the obligation of both parents to provide accurate information about their property and income, with a sworn statement in court, to determine the amount of child support.
Additionally, a provision is added to consider as evidence that the applicant cannot secure support from their income or property and is entitled to support for a period not exceeding two years if, at the time of the application and at least during the last year of marriage, they were not employed because they were caring for the children and the other parent has sufficient income.
The second bill promotes the protection and welfare of the child and places more emphasis on issues affecting their interests. Specifically, among other things, the following provisions are added:
(a) The provision regarding the case of omitting the child’s surname is modified to aim for equal treatment of parents and provides that the child will have a double surname composed of the surnames of both parents.
(b) There is an obligation to consider the child’s opinion, their interest, as well as any incidents of violence, by administrative or other competent authorities during administrative or other proceedings related to the child.
(c) One parent is allowed to request monitoring of the child by specialised experts without requiring the consent of the other parent in cases where the child is a victim of violence in the family or sexual abuse by the other parent, following a court conviction.
(d) The possibility of issuing an order to monitor the implementation of a court decision regarding parental custody by a Social Welfare Services officer is provided.
(e) The appointment of a Social Welfare Services officer, or if deemed necessary, a Mental Health Services officer, is provided to investigate all circumstances related to the child’s custody and submit a relevant report to the court.
(f) The possibility of referring parents to mandatory participation in educational or counselling programmes, or a parenting skills learning programme, when it is in the best interest of parent-child relationships is provided.
(g) The possibility of issuing a supervised communication order is provided when special circumstances exist, particularly in cases of violence incidents.
(h) The possibility of assigning the care of the child to the Director of Social Welfare Services in cases of poor parental exercise is provided.
The third bill regulates succession cases for assisted reproduction, and the fourth bill regulates the evidence of paternity and recognition of the child in cases where the child is born through medically assisted reproduction methods.
Strong Reservations
The representative of the Cyprus Bar Association stated that there are several points that need modification and expressed reservations about whether Social Services will be able to meet deadlines due to staff shortages.
The representative of the Association of Divorced Fathers, Valentinos Pierides, spoke about the removal from the initial bill of shared parental custody and emphasised that the child’s interest is to have both parents. He requested that child support payments be suspended when a parent is long-term unemployed or ill and stressed that “we will fight to the end to solve these problems.”
The committee gave everyone three weeks to submit their written opinions on the bills.
