Another protest 21 July 2001. Reports on events below.
Saturday 21 July 2001 at the country home of LJ Thorpe in Seend, nr Melksham, Wilts, a delegation of parents staged a protest accompanied by BBC TV film crew, radio and press reporters.
It was organised by EQUAL PARENTING COUNCIL which advocates that shared parenting is best for children after divorce and separation. The parents point to the fact that shared parenting was the stated intention of Parliament when it introduced the Children Act 1989. They say family courts are flouting Parliament's intention every day.
LJ Thorpe is the most powerful family court judge in the country. The delegation's visit to his home was an effort to get him to take notice of the fact that the family courts are making daily decisions that result in the children of broken homes losing one parent for no good reason.
Although there was a car in Thorpe's drive, nobody would answer the door, so the EPC delegation left a letter (text below) of protest along with some representative letters from parents who have not been treated equally by the family courts.
The next door neighbour told us: "Oh, he's in their alright! You want to bang on the door a bit louder!!"
The march to Thorpe's house followed an EQUAL PARENTING meeting at the nearby at The Bell Inn. EPC had sent an invitation to Lord Justice Thorpe to attend the meeting to hear the parents' concerns and discuss how the problem could be solved in the interests of children. Thorpe neither attended, nor bothered to reply.
Tony Coe, President of Equal Parenting Council said:
"This was an extremely successful operation. It is shame Thorpe did not respond constructively. These top family court judges know full well that the court system is not delivering justice to the children and parents of divorce. They are causing untold harm. It is a most fundamental breach of human rights. Public opinion overwhelmingly backs our position. These protests will continue, and indeed will escalate, until the matter is addressed."
TEXT OF PROTEST LETTER BEGINS HERE:
Saturday, 21 July 2001 DELIVERED BY HAND
Lord Justice Matthew Thorpe Beech House, High Street, Seend, Nr. Melksham, Wiltshire. SN12 6NU
Dear Lord Justice Thorpe:
Please find enclosed a copy of EQUAL PARENTING COUNCIL's submission in reply to the Lord Chancellor's Consultation Paper, "Making Contact Work"
It is clear that you are concerned about the enormous amount of court time that is being squandered over parental disputes, with highly trained judges having to adjudicate over how much time a child spends with each parent.
The solution is not as elusive as you appear to think. The solution is simply to treat each parent as an equal partner in the raising of their children unless there is a good reason not to. A good reason would be one that would limit or exclude one parent's involvement even if the parents were still together. We call this "the good reason principle".
In the absence of a good reason, the State has no business interfering in the parent-child relationship. It is hardly necessary for me to argue that children do best when they continue to be parented by both their separated parents.
Currently your family courts are effectively giving all the parenting power to the parent with whom the child resides. As a result, the other parent gets condemned and excluded; every aspect of his/her conduct is scrutinised in pursuit of reasons to justify restricting or excluding his/her parenting time. The courts pander to the wishes of the custodial parent.
Increasingly, the children of broken homes are effectively losing one parent for no good reason. Often, by the time the matter gets to a main hearing, the children are alienated from their off-site parent and are having little or no contact with him/her. Your courts often then simply order the status quo, thereby validating and rewarding that parent's exclusion.
We firmly believe that it is the senior judiciary that must take full responsibility for ensuring that parents are treated equally from the day that proceedings are issued. Parliament intended that should be the case, because, wisely, it knew that equal treatment (ie shared parenting) was largely best for children in their medium and long term interests.
It is no good looking to CAFCASS, which is in chaos having inherited the probation service's mess. The probation service have for years given the false impression that its court welfare officers were trained to evaluate issues of residence and contact. That was simply a lie. The negligent and self-serving manner in which most of them conduct their so-called investigations beggars belief. It had, in reality, no complaints procedure and arrogantly dismissed all complaints as having no merit.
Meanwhile the lives of the children and parents concerned continue to be blighted by untold pain and misery. Mostly the children suffer in silence because that is their means of survival. Many parents give up. Some fight on in the vain hope of finding justice. They are usually labelled insensitive, oppressive, even obsessive by your fellow judges for doing so.
There could not be a more fundamental breach of the human rights of both the child and the parent. The judiciary will not be looked on favourably by history for this; that much is certain.
We ask that you kindly give urgent attention to this matter and be assured we remain willing and able to offer any assistance to aid the process of putting a fair and balanced system in place.
Yours sincerely,
Tony Coe President
MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THIS & FUTURE PROTESTS FROM:
Tony Coe, President, EQUAL PARENTING COUNCIL Speaking Out for Children of Broken Homes Direct Line 020 7590 2701 - mobile: 07768 366 100 Information Line: 020 7590 2709 - Email: [email protected] "Children need BOTH Parents!" www.EqualParenting.org
UK CHAPTER - CHILDREN'S RIGHTS COUNCIL OF USA