30/04/2024
Romania is the first country in the European Union to legislate on parental alienation. The amendment to the child protection law was signed today by the President of Romania, Klaus Iohannis. The law is contested by the Romanian College of Psychologists because it has too many loopholes and subjective interpretations.
Following the adoption by the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies of the legislative proposal for amending and supplementing Law no. 272/2004 on the protection and promotion of children's rights, PL-x no. 698/2022, the Romanian College of Psychologists sent a notification to the Presidential Administration.
The notification, as formulated, addresses the following aspects:
- Incorrect use of the phrase "parental alienation" and the erroneous and inapplicable definition of parental alienation in the practice of diagnosis by psychologists for this relationship disorder;
- Incorrect definition of the alienating parent and the alienated parent;
- Limitation of the competence to request the finding of a situation of parental alienation to only three types of applicants;
- Limitation of competence regarding counseling for the child and parents only by psychologists from the General Directorate of Social Assistance and Child Protection (Child Protection Services);
- Limitation of the situation of listening to the child only by or in the presence of a psychologist from the General Directorate of Social Assistance and Child Protection.
- The project does not take into account the fact that psychologists practice their profession in other forms of organization and they can be requested for the aforementioned purpose;
- Does not differentiate between the Psychological Assessment Report and the Psychological Expertise Report. The first aims at the psychodiagnosis of the child, and the second responds to the psycho-legal constructs in legislation regarding the best interest of the child;
- Limits the diagnosis of parental alienation exclusively by the psychologist from the General Directorate of Social Assistance and Child Protection. This institution does not have the status of expert psychologist, in accordance with the normative acts. These regulate the profession of psychologist with the right to free practice, respectively the activity of psychological expertise, adopted by the governing bodies of the Romanian College of Psychologists.
It is also mentioned that the viewpoint of the Romanian College of Psychologists was previously submitted to the attention of all committees of the Chamber of Deputies, but it was not taken into account.
The request aims at sending the draft law back to Parliament for debate before being promulgated by the President of Romania.
It is evident that in all situations, reference is made only to psychologists from the DGASPCs (CPS).
However, these are clinical psychologists, so the activity of practicing psychologists will be severely affected.
In addition, the deficiency of personnel in the DGASPCs (CPS) at the level of the psychologist function is well known.
The imperfections of the law no longer matter; what matters is that many fathers who haven't even been able to see their children for several years finally have this opportunity! And mothers who violate joint custody will be held accountable or even risk losing custody. This depends on how child protection officials will behave, considering that Romania is in a complicated electoral year (local, European parliamentary, presidential, and parliamentary elections).
The Fathers' Rights Movement The Working Dad Daddy Doesn't Love You PAPA People Against Parental Alienation
