Parliament wants to encourage shared custody after separation. A bill in consultation aims to better involve father and mother in education, so that children keep a balanced relationship with both parents. Today, this model remains rare.
The courts generally entrust childcare to one parent, most often the mother. The option of shared guard remains marginal and varies according to the cantons: in some, it only concerns a divorce in ten, while in others, often in French -speaking Switzerland, it can reach three in ten divorces.
To raise these figures, Parliament wants to change the instructions given to the judges. The latter will have to opt for shared custody in more cases.
Not to mention that often fathers would like to do more, as Annamaria Colombo, professor at the Haute École de la Dégibourg and specialist in parenting, notices. According to her, they generally express today an increasing desire to invest in areas linked to sensitivity and affectivity.
“They want to spend quality time with their children, to transmit values to them, a vision of the future, an educational framework,” she explains. However, they do not always know how to do it, especially because they lack male models around them.
>> Also listen to the interview with Annamaria Colombo in the morning:
Solution not always ideal
But this solution is not always ideal, says Sabrina Burgat, family law professor at the University of Neuchâtel. For her, an alternating guard often involves a drop in financial contributions paid to the mother and an unequal distribution of parental tasks.
“We must also ask ourselves what we hear by shared guard. In the end, it is not simply taking care of the child at the exit of school or after the parascolary structure. It is something wider that includes daily care, mental charge, homework, care, dentist, hairdresser. And these are tasks that we cannot simply share,” she underlines.
Before adding: “And we must not forget that there are many cases in which this is not the right solution, because there are domestic violence or because parents do not want it. Not to mention the distribution of traditional roles still very present in Switzerland and in many families”.
Shared guard does not mean no more equality: “alternating custody has a significant financial impact and to the detriment of women,” she insists.
>> Read also: The economic consequences of a divorce in Switzerland mainly affect women
Despite these reservations, the bill defends the idea that it is in the interest of children to be kept by both parents after a divorce. The consultation ends in October, before a return of the text to Parliament.
Philus Authier/FGN