GENEVA (23 June 2023) – Deeply embedded gender bias that pervades family court systems across the globe is placing women and children in situations of immense suffering and violence, a UN expert said today.
“The tendency of family courts to dismiss the history of domestic violence and abuse in custody cases, especially where mothers and/or children have brought forward credible allegations of domestic abuse, including coercive control, physical or sexual abuse is unacceptable,” said Reem Alsalem, UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences in a report to the Human Rights Council in Geneva yesterday.
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Alsalem’s report also provides recommendations for States and other stakeholders to reverse the long-lasting harm done to individuals, families and societies. She urged the international community to bring the human rights dimension of multi-layered violence that many mothers and children are experiencing at the hands of family courts into its collective conscience.
“The protection of women and children from violence, a victim-centered approach, and the best interests of the child, must take precedence over all other criteria when establishing arrangements for custody and visitation rights,” she said.