Fathers' rights movement by country

As with other fathers' rights activists, Australian organizations focus on issues of erosion of the family unit, custody, access, child support, domestic violence (including false allegations, and violence against men), child abuse, maintenance, the reintroduction of fault into divorce proceedings, biased and adversarial court systems and secrecy issues.

[2][3] While Dad's in Distress expressed both appreciation of the Act as a small step in the right direction and concern whether the changes would be taken seriously by Family Law Practitioners[4] and Barry Williams, national president and founder of the Lone Fathers Association, stated, "I think these new laws are going to be the best in 30 years",[5] The Men's Confraternity welcomed the changes but also expressed disappointment and stated that the Act does not "force the Court to view parents as equals.

It introduced a presumption of dual location or shared residency which by law should be taken into serious consideration and thorough investigation with priority in each individual case by the Belgian family courts and judges on the request of either one of the divorcing parents separately.

[citation needed] In an attempt to pass a law creating a rebuttable presumption for shared parenting, several fathers' rights groups launched an action in the Federal Court of Canada to overturn the child custody provisions of the existing federal Divorce Act claiming that the legal test used to decide which parent obtains custody is biased against fathers, thereby violating the discrimination based on sex provisions of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, as well as the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Both are members of PEF Platform for European fathers (the first one via SOS Papa Nord Picardie) In Germany, one parent may apply to the family court for sole right of custody.

[22] For a very detailed explanation of the legal situation, see Wikipedia German web page;[23] Joint custody can be defeated when the parents do not agree.

Mathieu Carriere, a well-known German actor, who after the mother and sole custodian of his 8-year-old daughter sued him for allowing several newspapers to publish pictures of Carriere with his daughter, decided to refuse to pay a 5,000 Euro fine associated with the lawsuit and instead announced publicly that he would be serving a 10-day prison sentence in support of the campaign for equal rights for both parents following divorce or separation.

Post-divorce equal shared parenting is gaining ground, though it is not the most common way of child care after divorce at the present moment.

[28] The main organisation is non-political, called the Association of Divorce Fathers, Hungary (ADF), it was founded in 1989 when NGO's became possible again after 40 years.

[29] ADF activities cover protests, media events, petitions, it offers Fathers'Day programs and free legal counselling.

An activist father group called Eurocsalád Workgroup was formed in 2005 focusing on the legal security of parenthood and family work sharing.

A joint petition was followed by a father demonstration protesting against the practically impossible legal access to equal parenting (For the Law of Mind and Heart, 2008).

For a developed country with democratic political institutions, the Israeli society is notable for its high birth rate and natalist tendency,[33] for parallel religious family court systems in the Judiciary of Israel and for its diverse origins and ideologies including radical feminism and orthodox fundamentalism.

Although the majority religion Judaism has a patriarchal tradition, mothers enjoy increasing legislated advantages promoted by the Knesset Committee on the Status of Women and Gender Equality.

In comparison to the well funded feminist establishment, fathers' and men's rights groups, political efforts and media have been poor, small and sporadic.

There have been many protest vigils, demonstrations and marches against alleged discriminatory divorce laws and gender biased family court practices.

In 2014 an appeal to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights resulted in a UN condemnation of Israel for discrimination against divorced fathers.

In particular, Israeli fathers' rights activists have protested the Tender Years' Clause (which in 2016 was slightly amended in Knesset) and family court practice to award custody of children to the mother in all but exceptional cases.

[34] Additional calls for reform include: the high rates of alimony and child support imposed regardless of economic capability; the loss of freedom of movement by the liberal use of no-exit court orders prohibiting fathers (including fathers not in arrears) from leaving the country unless guaranteeing all future child support by deposit of money or sureties; gender biased prevention of domestic violence laws that are misused by divorcing women to evict fathers from their homes and disconnect them from their children—alongside women's legal exemption from prosecution for filing false accusations; the promotion of parental alienation, and; the high rate of fathers forced to see their children in supervised visitation "contact centers" due to false claims of child abuse.

[40] Members of the fathers' rights movement raise awareness about the need for shared parenting in New Zealand by sponsoring an award-winning[41] website, holding meetings, and protesting publicly from their War-4-Kids wagon.

This in fact is a classic case and example of conservative familycourts and judges involved in the practice of 'legislating from the bench' by largely ignoring instead of interpreting and applying new legislation as it was adopted by the Dutch parliament in 2009.

[48] Today F2F is by most Norwegian activists considered as a political organisation that speak according to what the government want to be the official truth, that mothers are best fit to be single parents.

Active Fathers organizations are Stowarzyszenie Prawo Dziecka DzielnyTata.pl, Inicjatywa Społeczna Porozumienie Rawskie PorozumienieRawskie.pl, Rodzice Pomorza and a web portal www.opiekarownowazna.pl.

In 2009 Romanian Association for Joint Custody (known as ARPCC Archived 2012-06-28 at the Wayback Machine or Asociația Română pentru Custodia Comună) was built.

Its members[60] see their task in providing public control over the state officials and legal bodies in an area of obeying Russian Constitution and Family Code, that guarantee equal parental rights which are systematically violated by the authorities.

This Law, passed in 2006, has resulted in significant majority of all court cases in which sole custody is requested, being awarded to the mother.

Pappa-Barn,[62] is one of the best known lobby organisation in Sweden which have a large membership of fathers and mothers supporting equal gender rights in custody.

The Alliance for the Child ("Allians för Barnen") is a social initiative to connect interdisciplinary scholars into a competence network engaging in informing political decision-makers in Sweden, Scandinavia and Europe about Parental Alienation Disorder (PAD).

It has been active since the late 70's in media by publishing articles in the press (Svenska Dagbladet, Brännpunkt: Barns rätt till två föräldrar - "Children's rights to two parents", Dec 27, 1979), in Swedish Radio (P1: Tendens), and, recently on the social debate media Newsmill (Ny Lag behövs till stöd för barn som berövas sina pappor - "A new law is required to support children deprived of their fathers") The fathers' rights movement in the UK consists of a variety of groups, ranging from charities, self-help groups to civil disobedience activists.

FNF provides self-help support groups, promotes research into shared parenting, and lobbies political for legal changes in the family law system in the UK.