\u201cI have two sons, aged 15 and 13. I haven\u2019t seen them in five years,\u201d a father desperately told the House Human Rights Committee.
\nDuring the discussion on the issues faced by children who are victims of parental alienation, gaps in the legislation, lack of structures, protocols, and collaboration between the competent services were highlighted.
\nA very serious problem of understaffing in the Social Welfare Services was also emphasised, as only eight officers are tasked with handling the ever-increasing number of divorces.
\nThe Committee will convene again next week, and the Deputy Minister of Social Welfare, Marilena Evangelou, will be invited to attend.
\n\u201cI haven\u2019t seen my sons in five years,\u201d said a father, noting that they are now 15 and 13 years old, one of whom is autistic.
\n\u201cThe child left the mother and came to me, telling me that he couldn\u2019t take it anymore and wanted to live with me.\u201d He went to the police with the child, but they were forcibly separated again.
\n\u201cHe is 1.75 metres tall and only 45 kilograms,\u201d the father alleged, claiming that the children are not doing well and that the mother is neglecting them. He further claimed that, in an attempt to keep him away, the mother twice accused him of sexually abusing the children.
\nHe also approached the Commissioner of Administration, who sent a letter to the police, which was never answered, the father said. The Human Rights Committee, following an intervention by MP Charalambidou, will forward the said letter to the Chief of Police.
\n\u201cI am the father of a 9-year-old girl, and it took me three months to see her. Her mother claims that the child is afraid of me,\u201d said another complainant.
\nAccording to a court decision, he was also entitled to see the child in the afternoon so that they could study together. Today, he said, there are 46 violations of the court order.
\nHe added that his mother had blocked his phone calls, preventing him from talking to his daughter. \u201cShe also stopped the child from going to school, which resulted in a complaint being filed by the Ministry of Education,\u201d the father said.
\nIn another case, a father of three children said that his two eldest children, now adults, had become alienated.
\nHowever, he said that he had fought to stay in contact with his youngest child. \u201cIt took years for the court to issue a decree, and based on that, the mother and I shared custody of the child 50-50.\u201d
\nFor her part, the Committee\u2019s chair, Irene Charalambidou, complained about understaffing in the Social Welfare Department, noting that only two officers were working on Nicosia cases.
\n\u201cRecently, one of them fainted in court due to exhaustion.\u201d She also complained that a total of eight officers had been tasked with preparing over 500 reports in 2023.
\nDuring the discussion, the absence of psychological support for the child and both parents, psychiatric evaluation of the parents, and the absence of psychologists in schools were also emphasised.Child custody. parental alienation, understaffing in Social Welfare Services, lack of psychological support<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A father shared his distress at not seeing his two sons, aged 15 and 13, for five years. Issues of parental alienation, gaps in legislation, lack of structures, and understaffing in Social Welfare Services were highlighted. The father claimed the mother neglected the children and falsely accused him of abuse. Another complainant struggled to see his 9-year-old daughter due to the mother’s interference. The Committee also discussed cases of parental alienation and the lack of psychological support for children and parents.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":7377,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"Default","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[4093,2134,5292,2858,932,3228,405,5596,115,4691,2796,5599,2685,5319,148,555,406,5330,5597,1799,184,1812,433,133,1806,4409,1358,114,5598,2687,483],"class_list":["post-7376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-other","tag-abuse","tag-challenges","tag-children","tag-collaboration","tag-court","tag-custody","tag-education","tag-families","tag-human-rights","tag-intervention","tag-issues","tag-lack-of-psychological-support","tag-legislation","tag-letter","tag-local","tag-ministry-of-education","tag-nicosia","tag-officers","tag-parental-alienation","tag-parliament","tag-police","tag-rights","tag-school","tag-schools","tag-services","tag-social-welfare","tag-support","tag-top-news","tag-understaffing-in-social-welfare-services","tag-victims","tag-violations"],"acf":{"keyphrase":"","keywords":"","sourceimg":"","country-category":""},"yoast_head":"\n