The Divorce Movement insisted today that divorce would not harm children any more than separation or annulment of marriage.

Speaking at a press conference outside the Centru Hidma Socjali, Divorce Movement chairman Deborah Schembri said it was bad relationships between parents and their separation which caused trauma to children.

She said one of the reasons why her movement was promoting the concept of No Fault divorce was to ensure that a bad situation was not made worse during divorce proceedings, with parents fighting each other and possibly using the children in a rug of war.

She said that the proposed Divorce law also included provisions proposing that maintenance would continue to be given to children of divorced parents until the children were 23 years old if they continued to study.

Divorce would also allow the parents to remarry, thus providing the children with a stable environment and removing the stigma of separation.

Michael Falzon regretted comments made last week by the Commissioner of Children and said there was no study which showed that the effect of divorce was any worse on children than annulment or separation. 

The Divorce Movement was today due to have met the Commission for Children, Helen d'Amato, but the meeting was called off because she has been hospitalised. Dr Schembri said the movement had intended to reply in more detail to Mrs D'Amato's comments, but preferred not to do so while she was not present.

See also

Two-thirds would not consider remarriage

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110515/local/Two-thirds-would-not-consider-remarriage-study.365406