Jose Nestor Cardoso, formerly a weekend father by judicial determination and will of the mother, has lost his fight to keep in contact with his son Diego, seven-and-a-half years old.
This followed judgments by two Judges and two District Attorneys of the Court of Family court in Rio Grande - Brazil ruling against the trip of the child to England, as well as Appeal Court Judge and Attorney General decisions of the appeal court in Porto Alegre, State Capital, to refuse the move.
In a highly tendentious judgment a further Appeal Court Judge has reversed these to give a decision favorable to Diego leaving the country. Supported by two other Judges who signed off on this judgment without reading the substance of the proceedings, there is now a possibility that Diego will be able to leave Brazil. Based solely on the premise that a son has a primary need to be with his mother, this judge has also advanced opinions on which language the boy should learn.
At no point has he based his decision on the rights of the child, clearly laid out in the Statute of the Child and of Adolescents (ECA) and in all international statutes to which Brazil is a signatory (Convention for Childrens's Rights - http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/k2crc.htm ). Not to the right of parenthood, nor the rights to family life, nor stability of care, and with no reference to his need of a father to guarantee his full development. No consideration was given to the impact on his developing sense of male identity, nor the disruption to his education, so well expressed by Françoise Dolto in her book: When parents separate. The Judge has argued that learning a foreign language is good, without attempting to explain how losing a native language in consequence can be good or indeed how moving away from one's close relations with father, grandmothers, cousins and uncles can be good. He has not even considered the merits of having a father with the ability to care for him full-time, as is the case here once father is actually retired. While in the foreign country the boy will mostly be in the care of third parties since both mother and stepfather will work, both having work patterns of great intensity demanding travel abroad as a characteristic of the work they do.
All of this has happened without considering the report of the Rio Grande Social Assistant which recommends that the boy stays in Brazil nor the experts reports that states all the losses the boy might have on such a move.
While parents are being hauled up and condemned for being absent from their children's lives, or being chased for alimony, those parents who try to be close to their children are repelled by unscrupulous mothers, and sandbagged by discriminatory laws which appear to condemn parents for being parents. And all the while, throughout the world, campaigns are pouring out onto the streets demanding equality of rights concerning custody of children when parents separate, and a court in Porto Alegre, in the Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, studiously carries out the precise opposite to this whole trend in modern society.
This Judge did not eve care about the Custody file that is still under judgment, and that the custody might be reversed at any time. It is clear though that once the boy has left the country any further decision will be terribly difficult to take effect.
Processes can be followed here:
http://www.tj.rs.gov.br/site_php/consulta/index.php
Select the Tribunal de Justiça or the city according to process bellow:
Rio Grande
10500054760 SUPRIMENTO Mother asking legal permission despite dad's refusal
10500054107 CAUTELAR Dad's process trying to arrest child passport
10500062339 GUARDA Dad's custody process
Tribunal de Justiça (Court of appeal)
70013023247 Mother appealed against the refusal to give legal permission to travel with my son.
70013631098 Dad's appeal against the decision that allowed the mother to take the child abroad.
Rio Grande do Sul State (RS) has been considered one of the most advanced in terms of human rights, yet when the subject is children, this equality of rights completely disappears. As data from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) demonstrates, while in the state of Amazonas10.5% of custody decisions are granted to fathers, in RS only 4.5% of the same are granted to fathers. At the same time, we are informed that up to 52% of jobs are presently occupied by women, thus removing them from their former position of housewives dedicated to taking care of children.
Whilst the Association of Separated Fathers and Mothers ( www.apase.org.br ) fights for shared parenting laws in the National Congress, Gaucho (RS) justice remains far removed from any such social change. The new family structure maintains the father as an automatic cash machine (ATM) while keeping him away from the children, giving no contact and no time for the healthy and indispensable development of family bonds.
The current society granted rights to women in the work market which have not been followed by egalitarian measures for men in the home. Today there is a strong desire amongst all of us for men to assume responsibilities at home, especially in regard to adjustments in the sharing of child-rearing and nurture. Available data on the Internet, for instance on the pages of the Children's Rights Council ( www.gocrc.com ), show that joint custody can only bring benefits to the children of separated parents, benefits which stretch from less absenteeism at school to less addition to drugs, better school performance and lower rates of child pregnancy.
The courts of the incredibly advanced Rio Grande Do Sul somehow manage to retain their role as bastions of reactionary tradition which marginalize dedicated parents from society, many of whom, due to total lack of resources to fight against this compromised judicial system, will in future be condemned by this same system to support their abandoned children.
Fortunately the Consulate of UK in Rio de Janeiro asks for father authorization in order to expedite the permanent visa. So, until now the mother was not able to travel to England with the boy.
So, I urge everyone available to write to the British Diplomatic Services in Brazil a mail telling them that taking my son away from me is a legal kidnapping.
PS. My son left Rio Grande with his mother on the 19th of December and he is has not get in touch since then. I do not have any idea where he is, and speaking to his grand parents on the phone they say they do not know where he is either.
E-mails
contato@reinounido.org.br and
saopaulo@gra-bretanha.org.br and
consular.rio@fco.gov.uk and
britishconsulaterio@terra.com.br and
portoalegre@gra-bretanha.org.br
Jose Nestor Cardoso
R. José de Carvalho Estima 90
96216-070 Rio Grande – RS
Brazil
55+ (53) 32351080
55+ (53) 91445577
apasergr@vetorial.net
