A child as a bargaining chip? The Confederation submits a project on counteracting parental alienation

The Confederation Club submitted a bill on counteracting parental alienation to the Sejm. These are situations when one of the child's parents negatively affects the child's relationship with the other parent. The project assumes the introduction of criminal liability for persistently preventing contact with a child.

The submission of a bill on counteracting parental alienation was announced by Confederation MPs Przemysław Wipler and Michał Wawer during a Thursday press conference in the Sejm.

The problem of parental alienation

According to Wipler, the project aims to counteract the pathology “which affects a huge number of minors and parents.” – The problem of parental alienation has been talked about for many, many years, but there have been no projects to solve this matter – emphasized the MP.

According to Wawer, the bill is introduced offense provisions that are intended to enable a parent who has no contact with the child to demand that the police impose a fine on the parentwhich prevents him from contact. Another proposed solution is introducing criminal liability for persistent and repeated parental alienation.

Wawer said that “the current situation in Poland is absurd” because The actions of one parent preventing the other parent from having contact with the child remain in practice unpunished. He added that such behavior by a parent harms the children, but also the Polish state and the Polish rule of law.

– In the current situation, when the other parent maliciously prevents contact with the child and prevents it, there are practically no sanctions for it. There is practically no effective way to enforce such a court ruling, the MP noted.

– There are no criminal sanctions, there are no offense sanctions, there is only the so-called a financial penalty imposed by the court, which in the realities of the Polish judiciary lasts for years and most often ends with a symbolic “slap on the hands” in the form of some ridiculous fine of PLN 100 or PLN 200 imposed on the alienating parent – added Wawer.

The Confederation invites you to discussion

As he emphasized, the Confederation's project is a cautious one. – We are open to discussion on this project. We do not claim that this is a perfect solution or that nothing better can be invented. This is only the first step in the fight for good, effective and seriously effective law regarding family life, he emphasized.

Wipler emphasized that a parent's right to contact with his or her child is a basic human right a child's right to contact with his or her own parent is “an absolutely fundamental right of children“Depriving them of this right, widespread, frequent, repetitive and with impunity, is a terrible pathology that we want to oppose, which is why we submitted our bill,” the MP added.

He also expressed hope that the bill would enjoy broad support. He conveyed that The solutions proposed by the Confederation were already supported by non-affiliated MP Marcin Józefaciuk. – We see that we have a chance for quite unexpected alliances and support for this type of initiative – noted Wipler.

According to the Code of Civil Procedure, “if the person in whose care the child remains does not perform or improperly performs the obligations arising from the judgment or from the settlement concluded before the court or before the mediator regarding contact with the child, the guardianship court, taking into account the financial situation of this person, will threaten to order the person entitled to contact with the child to pay a specified sum of money for each violation of the obligation.” (PAP)

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