Children’s Best Interests Begin With Equality Before the Law

World Parents Organization Press release

A Call for Equal Parental Responsibility Under National Law

The largest human rights case concerning discrimination in modern family life has been initiated against a European state.

Across the world, family law systems face a fundamental responsibility: to ensure that children’s rights are fully protected when families separate.

Research and international experience indicate that approximately 15–20% of children of separated parents lose all contact with one parent entirely, while many more experience a significant and lasting reduction in meaningful contact with one side of their family.

This represents not only a personal tragedy for millions of childrens and families, but also a systemic challenge for family law systems that claim to act in the child’s best interests.

This responsibility has become even more urgent as the largest human rights case concerning discrimination in modern family life — including unequal treatment of family forms, residential versus non-residential parents, and gender-based imbalance in parental recognition — has now been initiated against a European state.

The development signals that family justice is increasingly being examined at the highest human rights level, and it underscores the critical importance for national legislators and public authorities to go beyond and modernize current legislation and uphold international conventions fully, fairly, and without selective interpretation.

All children and parents must be equal before the law

It is no longer possible to speak credibly about “the best interests of the child” unless legal systems guarantee equal treatment and equal recognition of both parents from the start. Equality is not an abstract principle — it is the necessary starting point for child-centered justice in modern family life.

“One cannot claim to be acting in the best interests of the child if the underlying premise is unequal treatment of family forms, residential and contact parents, or gender. When all are not equal before the law, it becomes impossible to make truly individual and concrete decisions in the child’s best interests in todays society.”

Equality Before the Law Is the Foundation of Children’s Rights

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child makes clear that every child is entitled to full protection of rights without distinction, and that the legal status of either parent must never determine the child’s access to care.

Article 2 affirms the universal entitlement of every child to equal protection of rights.

Children must never experience unequal access to one parent because of structural imbalance or outdated assumptions.

The Best Interests of the Child Require an Equal Starting Point

The Convention further establishes:

Article 3: in all actions concerning children, the best interests of the child shall be a primary consideration.

However, this principle has meaning only when the process begins from equality. A system that starts by treating one parent as secondary cannot genuinely claim to serve the child’s best interests.

Every Child Has the Right to Know and Be Cared for by Both Parents

Children’s rights are also personal and direct:

Article 7 recognizes the child’s right, as far as possible, to know and be cared for by both parents.

This right belongs to the child — not to institutions, and not to one parent over the other.

European Human Rights Standards Must Be Respected

The European Convention on Human Rights provides further protection:

• Article 6 guarantees the right to a fair trial. Family law proceedings must be impartial and equality-based within reasonable time.
• Article 8 protects the right to family life. Children and parents have a right to maintain meaningful relationships, and any restriction must be lawful, necessary, and proportionate.

A Call for National Reform and Equal Enforcement

We call on governments, legislators, and courts worldwide to:

• ensure equality before the law in all family justice systems,
• recognize shared parental responsibility from the child’s birth,
• uphold children’s right to family life with both parents,
• apply the “best interests of the child” only through an equality-based framework,
• align national law with the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the European Convention on Human Rights, and Resolution 2079.

Conclusion: Equality Comes First

Children’s rights cannot be protected through unequal frameworks. The best interests of the child begin with equality before the law — and with the child’s right to both parents, wherever possible.

In the context of modern family life, an increasing number of human rights–based legal cases have already been initiated — and many more can be expected — concerning the application of custody, residence, and parental responsibility laws.

This development reflects a growing recognition that family justice is not merely a private matter, but a core area of democratic rights and legal equality.

For this reason, it is essential that politicians, legislators, and public authorities take existing international conventions seriously. Human rights instruments cannot be selectively interpreted, quoted out of context, or applied only when convenient.

The Convention on the Rights of the Child, the European Convention on Human Rights, and related standards must be respected and implemented in their full meaning and entirety within national legislation and administrative practice.

Only through faithful compliance with the complete framework of these conventions can children and citizens be protected against unequal treatment, arbitrary interference, and structural injustice.

Such protection is not only a legal obligation — it is also the true foundation of what is best for the child.

“We are living in a Shared Parenting world with single parenting law.”

There is a need for Equality in National Family Law towards the United Nations Global Goals 2030.

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