Children Affected By Divorce Essay -- essays research papers

CHILDREN AFFECTED BY DIVORCE &PROTECTING THEIR BEST INTERESTSOn the 11th of June, 1996, the Family Law repossess Act 1995 came into effect amending certain sections of the Family Law Act 1975, in particular, those relating to the fear of children involved in divorce situations. The object of these amendments, according to the new act, was to manipulate two things. Firstly, that the children may receive adequate and proper parenting to help them obtain their full potential, and secondly, to ensure that parents fulfil their duties, and meet their responsibilities, concerning the care, welfare and development of their children. These new-made amendments are clearly a positive step forward for family virtue beca expend the law has recognised that the child is the only important factor in a divorce and that it is crucial that the rights of the child are protected. To fairly label the usefulness of these recent amendments in protecting the interests of the child, the social implic ations of the act, the principles taken into sexual conquest when decision making a case, the impact on stakeholders, and criticisms of the act must entirely in whole be taken into consideration.In order to ensure that the childs rights are protected, the courts aim is to ensure that parental right survives any changes in the nature of the childs parents relationship. Parental responsibility relates to all the duties, powers, responsibilities and authority which, by law, parents welcome in relation to children. When deciding a case involving a child in the event of a separation mingled with the childs parents, the childs trump interests are now the courts paramount consideration. The concepts access, custody, and guardianship have been replaced in the amendments by contact, residence, and joint parental responsibility.Between 1987 and 1997, the annual lean of divorces rose from 39,700 to 51,300. As a result of this increase, one fifth of all Australian children aged one to seventeen now live in single parent households. Of these children living with only one natural parent, 88% live with their mothers with the remaining 12% living with their fathers. This ratio of which parents children resided with remained constant between 1987 and 1997, indicating that the trend of the courts to favour mothers over fathers has continued despite the changes to the act. With the number of divorces consistently risin... ... the number of cases which can be funded has dropped from 6,000 last year to 4,000 this year. It now seems really unlikely that steps will actually be taken to furbish up this problem by either of the suggested solutions due to the lack of funding and the budget cuts will most likely result in a turn of the situation.Overall, it is difficult to judge the effectiveness of the amendments to the Family Law Act 1975 because it is impossible to euphony how well a childs best interests have been served. However, if the Family judiciary of Australia has adequately implemented the changes then one would expect that the amendments have been effective in improving the system of determining what is in the childs best interests. Therefore the courts final ruling with regards to the contact, residence, and nutriment of the child will be the option which is best for the child. In conclusion, when all of the factors have been taken into consideration, it appears that the recent amendments will result in a step forward for the way in which the rights of children are protected by the courts decisions. Whether or not the courts will make use of this improved system, however, is another question.