The Chamber of Deputies evaluates the Bill 2812/22, which calls for the total repeal of the parental alienation law, enacted in 2010.
Parental alienation occurs when one of the parents performs behaviors such as influencing the child to repudiate the other parent, making contact between the parties difficult and omitting relevant information about the child to the former partner. In cases like these, the law establishes punishments ranging from warnings to the loss and reversal of custody of the child or adolescent.
The justification underscores a controversy involving the law of parental alienation, the target of criticism from institutions defending the rights of children and adolescents.
The use of the law may have its use diverted by parents accused of various abuses against their children – such as domestic violence and rape of a vulnerable person – and who use, as a form of defense against the process, the premise of parental alienation.
“Judicial measures under the Parental Alienation Law have a different impact on women in the context of violence and abuse, who are commonly attributed the practice of alienation for making complaints against the parent”, say the parliamentarians in the text of the project.
“Today, 12 years after the enactment of this norm, we are conclusive that it not only did not generate the desired effects, that is, those of reducing abusive acts by parents in the process of separation and dispute over custody, but has also been applied in a to generate even more serious problems than those it intended to mitigate”, says the text of the proposal.
What underlies the law of parental alienation
The Parental Alienation Syndrome is the thesis that supports the law and was formulated by the American doctor Richard Gardner to define the state of disturbance through which children who are victims of distortion of the image of one of the parents would pass, usually in a dispute for their custody.
“It so happens that this thesis is not endorsed by a wide spectrum of the world’s scientific community”, argues the proposal of the deputies.
The admission of the existence of the syndrome would give the judge, according to the parliamentarians, “exacerbated power” to delegate over the case, and, without expertise, declare the existence of the alienation to determine provisional measures and sanctions that seek to preserve the psychological integrity of the child and the adolescent.
In February last year, the National Health Council (CNS) called for the end of the law, stating that it grants the right to visit parents denounced of abuse by the other parent.
The United Nations (UN) also criticizes the parental alienation law, stating that the law’s approach “essentially results in miscarriages of justice and the continued exposure of the mother and child to abuse, life-threatening situations and other violations”. of their fundamental freedoms”.
“We underline with concern the disturbing consequences for mothers, many of whom have no choice but to remain silent regarding the abuse of their children by their partner or former partner, in the face of fear of being accused of parental alienation and losing custody rights. ”, says a document signed by UN experts.
The project will be analyzed by the Social Security and Family, Constitution and Justice and Citizenship committees.
(*With information from Agência Câmara)
Source: CNN Brasil
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