He believed that he had a closer relationship with the children and could provide them with a more stable family environment than the perverted one in which they were now living. An interview was conducted with B, the mother, who stated that she believed her present de facto relationship with L would be a long term one and that she should not be punished by having her children taken from her because she had chosen what some might consider as an unconventional lifestyle. She further stated that A s behaviour had become progressively unstable during the marriage and she feared for both the safety of the children and herself if any contact with A was to occur in the future. There is no point at all in acknowledging children s rights if they can be safely ignored. Discuss in light of the current status of the UN Convention in Australian Law and Practice.
Society maintains an equivocal attitude to adoption.
The U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child strongly endorses adoption as a stable form of child upbringing. Australian adoption legislation, however, while formally endorsing the principle that the interest of the child is paramount, seems to have moved away from that principle in practice. Family Law is never static, nor should it be. As additional social science research refines the knowledge we have about children s experiences of and reactions to marriage breakdown we need to adapt both laws and practices to best meet the needs of those who stand to be most affected by the demise of their parent s relationship. The problem with attempting to implement this philosophy is that it creates a situation where judges are given almost boundless discretion encouraging the parties to litigate rather than mediate their disputes causing much unnecessary suffering for those whose interests the law is designed to protect.