Posted on 12/12/2011 2:24:34 PM PST by IsraelBeach
UN Calls on Israel To Amend Custody Law, End Gender Bias Discrimination Against Divorced Fathers
By Ruth Eglash
The Jerusalem Post
UN Rights committee highlights need to ease burden on fathers seeking full or partial custody of their children.
The United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has called on the Israel government to amend its laws in order to ease the burden on fathers seeking full or partial custody of their children.
At a special hearing in Geneva last month, the committee expressed concern that fathers embroiled in custody disputes in Israel are not always treated fairly under the Israel Capacity and Guardianship Law.
In its summation of hearing about the economic, social and cultural situation in member countries, the UN committee called directly on the Israel government to make sure that custody of children up to the age of six is not always given to mothers and asked the government to find a way to “ensure that child support awards do not lead to an inadequate standard of living for the father.”
The UN committee was responding to a report submitted by the Israel Coalition for Children and Family, a non-profit organization that unites several bodies engaged in fighting for father’s rights. The report outlines numerous hardships faced by fathers in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Ra'anana, Haifa, Kfar Sava, Hadera, Beer Sheva and throughout the Jewish state going through what the NGO describes as a gender-biased court and social welfare system.
Alongside complaints of social and economic difficulties faced by the men and accusations that in general more attention is paid to women’s rights, the CCF also outlined legislation it calls “blatantly discriminatory against men.”
“The parliament and judges in Israel refuse to eliminate discriminatory preferences and presumptions which favor women. That is coupled with automatic and instant decisions in favor of women, compared with deliberate procrastination in disposing of motions filed by men, general attitude of ridiculization and marginalization of all men, labeling all men as potential aggressors and dangerous to spouses and children,” wrote the divorced fathers in their human rights report to the UN.
They continued: “It turns the lives of men unbearable, driving most of them into poverty, inability to carry jobs, imprisonments and a large number of suicides (200 suicides a year, eight times greater than everyone else, and 50 percent of the national average number of occurrences).”
The group specifically highlighted article 25 of the Israel Capacity and Guardianship Law, known as the Tender Years Presumption Law, which automatically awards custody of children under six to the mother.
“There is not even one official source in Israel that recognizes a father’s right to access his children post-divorce,” wrote the men in the report.
In its summation, the UN committee expressed concern that “in the case of a divorce, custody of children up to the age of six is always given to mothers, and that fathers are often required to pay child support awards that exceed their income, and if not that their freedom of movement is seriously curtailed.”
It also noted that “divorced fathers often are required to visit their children in supervised visitation centers during their working hours, which leads to the accumulation of work absences and the risk of dismissal.”
Despite the UN’s recognition that their battle has legitimacy, Daniel Zer, a father who has not seen his son for more than two years, expressed pessimism that anything would rapidly change Israel.
Zer said the NGO has been rebuffed by politicians and the authorities in Israel in their attempts to raise the issue and improve the situation.
“We are really stuck in hell,” he said.
Last June, Zer and four other fathers associated with the CCF submitted a similar petition to the UN’s Human Rights Council detailing decisions by the authorities to deny or limit the fathers’ access to their children.
In that complaint, the fathers claimed that Israel’s family laws and practices violate international conventions, deny men involved in divorce cases their basic human rights and accused state-run authorities and courts of purposely disengaging fathers from their children.
Earlier this year, Israel MK Yulia Shamolov Berkovich (Kadima) sponsored two conferences in the Knesset (parliament) addressing “equality of the sexes” and, in addition, a petition (“Adam Zer, a minor v. Ministry of Welfare”) was submitted to the Israel High Court of Justice by Zer, who said the practice of forcing men to prove it is in the best interest of the child to see the father violates basic and natural human rights.
In addition, fathers’ rights groups in Israel have held a series of demonstrations and are currently in the process of compiling a report on the estimated 200 divorced men who commit suicide each year.
Legislation is also being drafted, which the CCF said will “bring Israel in line with the rest of the world” in regards to the rights of fathers.
UN calls on Saudi Arabia to end beheadings, mutilations, stonings, lashings, female circumcision, etc. etc, etc.............oh, i guess that’s not going to happen.....
We have the same situation in the United States. Why aren’t they doing the same thing here?
I would list homosexuality and pederasty as number three. Their Ancient Grecian worldview and embracement of Sodomy as a Virtue is why they are intrinsically disordered and evil. That homosexual worldview leads to the mutilation and sodomy of children and women and 2nd class citizenship of women.
Due to lack of knowledge, I cannot dispute the facts of this individual case BUT, BUT, BUT How about the Islamic countries in this regard? With the well-known patriarchal bias common to the Arab culture, I would imagine that this COULD cut that way.
On the other hand, given the voting power of the Islamic Bloc ... I am not holding my breath!
Caring, responsible, loving fathers in Israel will seek UN, EU, US help, any human rights assistance in illustrating gender bias discrimination that takes children away from their dads.
This is a joke? Isn’t it?
Forget that. How 'bout just allowing them to walk by themselves on a sidewalk if they choose to do so?
ML/NJ
Hillary is in on this. She was complaining last week (when Panetta was attacking Israel) that Israel is violating women’s human rights. The UN can’t protect women’s “human” rights and piss off the Muslims; but they can demand men’s rights.
The wrongs of one country don’t make the wrongs of another country right.
Men’s rights have to be insisted on.
Israel should not be acting like the US and Europe here. It is unfortunate. However, the UN should not be allowed to interfere with sovereign nations.
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