Children have right to live within family - minister
Video: Mark Zammit Cordina
Children who had no hope of ever being reunited with their natural parents should be given up for adoption because they had the sacrosanct right to live within a family, Family Minister Dolores Cristina said yesterday.
Ms Cristina said she wanted to see the courts exercise more often their right to remove parental rights and give the children up for adoption.
“I would like to see this happening more because I believe that children have the right to live in a family and we have many families who would like to adopt,” she said.
In a report published on Tuesday, outgoing Children’s Commissioner Carmen Zammit said incompetent mothers and fathers who refused to reform should have their parental rights permanently removed.
She echoed the words of the former CEO of the Foundation for Social Welfare Services, Joe Gerada, who, in October 2008, insisted that failed parents should be forced to give their children up for adoption rather than condemn them to an institute for years.
Mrs Cristina said the law allowed for children to be permanently taken from their parents and given up for adoption. “Children should have the sacrosanct right to live within a family,” she insisted.
Ms Cristina said that, although fostering was a very good alternative to a natural family, there should also be other alternatives to children who spent many years living in an institution, never knowing what it meant to live in a family.
Time is also of the essence when taking such decisions. “I am not a social worker, a psychologist or an expert on children but they say that, even at a young age, by the time they are a year or 18 months, children would already have felt the absence of living in a family,” Mrs Cristina said.
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David Schembri
May 13th 2010, 12:41
dan kollhu kliem sabih li qed tghid il-ministru.....imma taf jekk it-tfal iridux imorru jghixu ma familja ohra? konxxja illi hafna tfal ma jkunux iridu familja ohra imma jibqghu jittamaw fil-familja naturali taghhom. niltaqghu ma kazijiet fejn tfal isibu familja u maghhom ikun hemm possibilita li jibnu futur, imma fi-maggoranza assoluta tat-tfal u z zghazagh li nahdmu maghom, rarissimu jkunu jridu li jghixu ma familja gdida. dak li jaghmel sens f'mohh l-adulti, fit-teoriji u fil-kotba mhux dejjem jaghmel sens fid-dinja tat-tfal
M Pace
May 13th 2010, 12:01
The honorable Dolores christina should keep insisting on this. Take a look at the British or American news items, such children frequently end up tortured or killed because they leave them return to such natural parents. They deserve a decent family and all the love they need. Keep it up Minister and continue insisting!
Lina Caruana
May 13th 2010, 11:33
It is true that children' s rights should be safeguarded even prioritized over their parents' . However good it is to sensitize parents drastically ,if need be , about their responsibilities ,the utmost care should be taken when separating children from their natural parents. This is highly dangerous ground because legislation cannot but generalize problems which are individual and intimate. Messing with families may follow from incompetence and /or negative human interventions which places the children in worse situations. The cases we recently heard about of child abuse come to mind. I recall the heartbreaking expression of the little girl who was put on the ship to Australia leaving her mother behind on the quay for ever. The cause is more that of separation than institution. It is real. It may be more appropriate to punish irresponsibility of irresponsible birth expecting others to do all the caring . If such wishes are conceded to ,we will end up with a child factory for adoption. That will not raise the dignity and rights of uncared for children an inch. Something must be done ,like teaching responsible parenthood and family obligations.It is time to revise the social welfare model.
S Atlamyob
May 13th 2010, 18:35
As a foster parent and as teacher myself, I agree with you whole heartedly with your insights.
Just because a child is placed with an adoptive family, does not guarantee that the child will connect or thrive in that family. One hundred percent, in my experience and my observations, the child is considerably better off with parents, or one parent if the other persists in adverse behavior, and or other family members rather than strangers.
It's unfortunate that current western systems repeatedly overlook the importance of fathers as equally important and equally qualified parents before placing children systematically with unfit mothers.
Mandatory parenting classes, and daily tracking, supervision, and testing by fully trained and unbiased social workers for at risk parents is certainly a good beginning.
vincent magro
May 13th 2010, 10:47
"Mrs Cristina said the law allowed for children to be permanently taken from their parents and given up for adoption"
Mela x'qed nistennew? Jien naqbel ma Joe Gerada li dawk it-tfal li ma jistghux jitrabbew mill-genituri naturali taghhom, ghandhom jinghataw ghall-adozzjoni, u d-djar tat-tfal ghandhom ikunu ghall tfal li ma jistghux jghixu mal-familja taghhom ghal-perjodu qasir.
Irridu naghmlu decizzjoni ta xhinu l-aktar importanti, jekk hux id-dritt tal-genituri li jrabbu t-tfal taghhom, jew id-dritt tat-tfal li jitrabbew go familja.
Jien nemmen li d-dritt tat-tfal li jitrabbew go familja hu sagrosant, u kullmin, sew jekk genituri u sew jekk gudikanti, ma jahdimx b'dal-principju, ikun qed jonqos lis-socjeta propju fil-fundament taghha, it-tfal u l-familja. Wara kollox it-tfal m'huma taghna xejn. Taghna hi r-responsabbilta taghhom, li meta ma nistghux nerfugha r-responsabbilta minnhabba raguni jew ohra, din ma tibqax taghna, imma ssir ta dak il-gudikant li mis-sentanza tieghu se jiddependi l-futur ta dawk it-tfal li se jiddeciedi ghalihom.
Mela filwaqt li Dolores Cristina, Sina Bugeja, Joe Gerada u Carmen Zammit, qalu li kellhom jghidu, issa nittama li l-gudikanti jiddeciedu b'gustizzja favur dik il-faxxa fis-socjeta li l-anqas li ghandha mezzi biex tipprotegi ruha, it-tfal.