Dr. Roxanne Castellanos is the Director of the Center for Orientation and Psychological Help of the Faculty of Psychology of the University of Havana. There, it receives children and adolescents with various problems on a daily basis who, in some way, always go through the dynamics and functioning of families, either because they are generated precisely there or because of the essential role they play in terms of facilitating and accompanying the solutions.
From this daily experience, Roxanne affirms that “all the innovative elements that the Family Code Project has in relation to the treatment of childhood have to do with our realities, in fact, what is already paradoxical is being with an instrument law like the one we have now, completely outdated, even with terminologies that are obsolete in relation to the treatment of children”.
We ask for some examples of those situations for which the new legislation would provide timely responses.
An opportunity for responsible parenthood
“Among the most relevant things that are contemplated, for example, is shared custody, which is something that I constantly see in consultation, models that are becoming more and more frequent, but that continue to be, shall we say, innovative: families where the father and the mother is involved from all points of view in the upbringing of the children and at the time of separation it is very difficult for the part that is not left as the main caregiver to assume the communication regimen because the child suffers a lot and also that part, who is almost always the father. Shared custody has existed in the world for many years and having that possibility today for Cuban families is a tremendous gain that the Code brings.”
Grandparents with benefits
“Likewise, we must take into account the role that grandparents play in Cuba and how unprotected they were by law until now. The number of new options that appear for them in terms of being able to provide them with legal capacity for the protection of children when they’re in those roles and the fact that the bond between grandparents and children can be protected once it’s proven to have been a meaningful bond for the children, these are new things that are very necessary.”
stepfathers and stepmothers
There are also important contributions in terms of recognition of other types of ties, such as in the case of similar fathers or mothers, who are stepfathers and stepmothers. This is not for everyone, but for those who really have very strong affective ties with children and that, from children, I do emphasize that, it is important that this bond is preserved. It is not simply because of the desire of the adults, but because there is really a significant link between them and therefore it is necessary that this can be guaranteed.
When mom and dad go on a trip
“Another increasingly frequent example is what happens to children when their parents go on a trip, which until now had not been duly legalized by those who were in charge of them, since all of this is regulated in the new Code.”
The dangers of the digital age
“It is important that greater emphasis be given to the protection of children in terms of the abuse that may exist in digital environments. This appears to be contemplated as part of the care that must be taken with children and is very necessary for the dramatic situation that we are experiencing today due to the lack of control that exists with all this and there are many cases that I see on a daily basis with effects caused by this reason”.
No to violence
“In the same way that you are trying to build a culture of respect for the child and the gradual elimination of ways of disciplining with physical and psychological punishment, it is a great gain, because the mission of the legal field is that, because no matter how hard you work for part of pedagogy and psychology in educating the population on all these issues, that also has to go hand in hand with a legislative framework, so that people really understand it.
“The reaction there is regarding that is because people want to continue mistreating children without anything happening. If they say it on television every day, but there is no law, then I continue to do it, then we already have a law I don’t like it. That’s why I tell people: I can’t understand you when the reasons you give me for disagreeing have to do with violence and mistreatment. We can’t understand each other there. In relation to adults, it’s very It is clear that you incur a crime if you physically harm another person and, nevertheless, with the children there is nothing, then it is valuable that the Code places an important emphasis on this matter and, in general, on the protection of the child from all edges that have to do with their development and the fact of calling parents to be very clear about the duties and roles that correspond to them”.
