The Parliamentary Social Affairs Committee has called on the state to offer temporary help to those separated spouses who are not being paid their maintenance on time and are therefore suffering hardship. Such assistance would be given until maintenance is resumed.
The recommendation is one in a series made by the committee which discussed ways to improve the Family Court and to ease the trauma of children in separation cases. The document is now open for public consultation.
Other recommendations include extending maintenance until children are 21, giving more legal assistance to children in separation proceedings, and legislation to protect the unborn when women in separation cases are pregnant.
In its recommendations, the committee insisted that the conditions laid down in separation contracts or court sentences in separation proceedings must always be respected, especially where the children are concerned.
The committee said there should be stiffer penalties against those who violate the contract conditions. When maintenance is not paid on time, the Criminal Court should have the authority to order immediate payment or payment within an established time.
It was also felt that cases before the Family Court for payment of due maintenance should be heard summarily and decided in one day. The hearing should be appointed with two weeks of filing.
Furthermore, it should become common for the courts to order that maintenance payments be deducted directly from one's pay.
'GIVE A VOICE TO CHILDREN'
The committee said that children need to be given a voice in separation proceedings as a way to reduce their trauma.
"During separation proceedings, children must not be considered as being an object. Children are an integral part of the family and their rights and interests must be safeguarded throughout the process of separation and afterwards, especially with regard to access by the parents."
The committee said the law needed to be more detailed with regard to the children's interests. Indeed, there should be ad hoc legislation on the children's rights.
The Children's Commissioner should have the legal power to evaluate legal procedures and laws to safeguard the children's interests.
In separation procedures where problems related to the children were evident, the mediators should have the possibility of hearing the children without the presence of the parents. They should then continue to hear the case in the presence of the parents. Where necessary the mediators should hear the parties on their own.
When no reconciliation between the spouses was possible, mediators should put the interests of the children first. The mediators needed to help the parents understand that they must adapt themselves to the needs of the children, and not the other way around.
ACCESS TO CHILDREN
The committee said that whenever problems cropped up about access to children, and the police become involved, policemen should be in plain clothes and unmarked vehicles should be used. In such cases, the police and social workers should put the interests and the wishes of the children first.
"In no circumstances must the exercise of access take the form of an arrest of the minors," the committee said.
Whenever access could not be granted because of illness, social workers should intervene to facilitate matters, rather than having the case end up in the courts.
The committee noted that there were many cases when the children refused to obey court orders on access. It said that while the parents should do their best to ensure that the children stayed in contact with both of them, facts showed that forcing the children for such contact against their will was leading to psychological problems.
"There are even children as young as five or six on anti-depressants" the committee said.
MAINTENANCE UNTIL CHILDREN TURN 21
The committee recommended that maintenance to children should continue until they are 21, thus encouraging and enabling them to follow post-secondary courses. In this way, the children would not need to file a court application for such maintenance, as is done at present.
The committee also suggested that children should no longer be taken to police stations to await their other parent for access. "We are having children who are seeing police stations as being their second home," the committee lamented.
A service should also be introduced so that social workers could intervene whenever the police received reports of violence on one of the parents or the children.
SERVICES AT FAMILY COURT
The committee also made recommendations for changes in the structure of the Family Court. The recommendations include the setting up of an information office of the Family Court. The office would also provide the services of a psychologist and legal aid, as necessary.
In the Family Court, the process needed to be more child oriented, and the judge should be assisted by two experts to safeguard the interests of the children.
The committee said that sentences in separation cases involving the children could never be definitive since circumstances changed. The committee said there should be a procedure to monitor the implementation of the separation conditions. That work could be done by social workers.
The committee was also of the view that the children should be assisted by a lawyer in all separation cases, and not as the discretion of the judge. This would give a stronger voice to the children in the proceedings. The role of the children's lawyer should be specified by law.
PROTECTING THE UNBORN
The committee said legislation was also needed for the courts, in separation cases, to protect the rights of the unborn when the wife is pregnant.
The committee is headed by Edwin Vassallo. The report can be found at
http://www.parliament.gov.mt/socialaffairscommittee