Parental Rights and Responsibilities
This document outlines the set of duties, responsibilities, and rights that parents hold for their children. As minors, children are naturally under the care, protection, and custody of their parents. Parental rights are configured as a power-duty that must always be exercised for the benefit of children. These legal powers are granted to parents to be recognized or exercised on behalf of children, paying close attention to their best interests. Parental rights are a basic institution of public policy and are non-transferable, inalienable, and indefeasible.
Subjects
Minor children who have not been emancipated remain under the custody of their parents. Today, custody is typically exercised jointly by the father and mother. However, there are exceptions:
- Causes of Exclusion: In these cases, the child does not bear the name of the excluded parent unless requested by the child or their legal representative. These exclusions cease to have effect at the request of the legal representative, with court approval, or at the request of the child upon reaching full capacity.
- Deprivation of Parental Rights by Sentencing: This deprivation may be total or partial. Recovery of parental rights may take place when the cause ceases, upon plea and decision by the courts.
Valid acts may be performed by one parent, according to social use and conditions, or in situations of urgent need. To exercise joint custody, an agreement is required for its performance.
Solutions
- Disagreement: In cases of simple disagreement, the judge, after hearing the parents and the child, will attribute the power to decide to either the father or the mother.
- Repeated Disagreements: If disagreements are repeated, the judge may assign all or part of the exercise of parental authority to one parent or distribute the functions between them.
- Absence, Inability, or Failure of One Parent: In these cases, parental authority shall be exercised solely by the other parent.
- Parents Living Separately: Parental authority shall be vested with the parent with whom the child lives. However, the trial judge, upon justified request from the other parent, may, in the best interests of the child, grant joint parental rights or determine a distribution of roles between the father and mother.
Content
Personal Effects
Parental authority includes the following duties and powers at the personal level. The Civil Code sets a standard of conduct for parents, which must be determined according to the family circumstances as a whole.
- Parents who exercise parental authority have the legal representation of their unemancipated minor children. However, there is an exception to this representation:”Acts relating to personal rights or the child, in accordance with the laws or the conditions of maturity, can be done by the child themselves”
- In acts where there is a conflict of interest between parents and the child, a guardian ad litem may be appointed.
- Contracts requiring the child to perform personal services require the prior consent of the child if they have sufficient judgment.
Economic Effects
The administration of the children’s property requires the same diligence used to manage one’s own property. Therefore, if the parent’s administration endangers the child’s heritage, the Judge, at the request of the child, the Family Ministry, or any relative of the child, may take appropriate steps for protection.
At the end of custody, children may require parental accountability for the administration carried out (expiring after three years). Parents may be held accountable for the loss or damage to property if there was fraud or serious negligence.
Excluded from the administration are:
Fruits and Revenues of the Children’s Property
These belong to the children, but they are required to contribute equitably, as possible, to cover family expenses while living with their parents. They are not held accountable for what is consumed in these cases.
Judicial Review of Acts of Disposal by Parents
According to Article 166, the following acts require prior judicial authorization with a Family Ministry audience:
- Waiver of rights, both real and credit
- Acts of alienation or encumbrance of real estate, commercial, or industrial property
- Repudiation of precious inheritances, legacies, and donations
Extinction
Parental rights are extinguished by:
- Death or declaration of death of the parents or the child
- Emancipation
Extended or Rehabilitated Parental Authority
- Extended: For children declared disabled, parental rights extend when they reach the age of majority.
- Rehabilitated: For example, the eldest son of an old bachelor who lived with his parents and had been declared mentally incompetent.
Termination of Extended or Rehabilitated Parental Rights
- Declaration of death of the parents or the child
- Adoption of the child
- Declaration of the cessation of the disability
- Marriage of the disabled child