• Sweden edition

Swedish court grants grandparent access

Published: 13 Mar 11 12:28 CET | Double click on a word to get a translation
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/32558/20110313/

The grandparents of a six-year-old girl in Vellinge in southern Sweden have been give the legal right to meet their grandchildren one weekend a month, after a landmark appeals court decision, reported the Dagens Nyheter daily.

The girl's parents were separated when her father died in 2004, and following his death the grandparents and her mother were unable to agree over access to the child.

The grandparents had already secured a decision from the local authorities supporting their right to meet their grandchild and when the relationship broke down Vellinge social services applied to the district court to rule on the matter.

The court found in favour of the grandparents and legally confirmed their right to meet their grandchild but the mother appealed the decision to the appeals court for Skåne and Blekinge.

After an agreement between the parties, the court has ruled that the mother has to ensure that the grandparents have a right to meet the girl one weekend a month, amending the district court decision pertaining to six hours every other weekend.

The decision is unique in Swedish law and follows the amendment to the children and parents code (föräldrarbalken) in 2006 to state that the grandparents should be given special consideration in custody disputes.

The Local/pvs (news@thelocal.se)

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12:13 March 13, 2011 by johnny1939
Good Show!!! The grandparents and the grandchildren should not be dragged in to that their parents are idiots and are unable to get along. They must have loved each other at one point or another. One must be reasonable and forget the pettiness. I do not have any grandchildren.
13:13 March 13, 2011 by JulieLou40
@ johnny1939: Did you actually read the article? Did anyone say anything about the parents being unable to get along? No. The father died, you pillock.
13:16 March 13, 2011 by benomax
@ JulieLou40: I agree with you 100percent. People should read articles properly before making silly comments, lol.
13:26 March 13, 2011 by locaxy
@JulieLou40

One would assume that since they were "separated", they didn't really get along.

Yeah...reading articles isn't the forte of commenters around here...
16:36 March 13, 2011 by Nemesis
I think this is a good decision.

Children should be in contact with their grandparents.

Children need to know who their family is and know that their family is not a street gang.
17:10 March 13, 2011 by muscle
Actually here in TheLocal, comments are always more interesting than the news :).
20:46 March 13, 2011 by JulieLou40
Ha ha ha ha
22:39 March 13, 2011 by DavidtheNorseman
Well, considering that without the Grandfolks the child wouldn't be here.......would be hard though if you were the mom and they were evil........course it would be hard if you were the Grandfolks and the parent was evil........Poor wee duckie.......
00:47 March 14, 2011 by Tanskalainen
What a civilized ruling! In some countries the Grandparents have no visitation rights whatsoever. God bless Sweden.
12:27 March 14, 2011 by mojofat
I completely disagree with this decision. It undermines the mother's authority and right to raise her child the way she sees best. What if these grandparents aren't good custodians? Perhaps she has reasons to not want her child to visit these people...maybe they weren't kind to her, or caused her harm. Even if she doesn't, it's not the court's place to legislate parental behavior and it's not a "right" of the grandparents to have visitation: it's a privilege that comes with having a good relationship with the parents. What's next, the court telling parents their child has to spend every other weekend with their uncle or cousins? The court telling parents their kids have to wear blue sweaters on Tuesdays? What if your parents abused you as a child and now the court forces you to send your child to them on the weekends. Ridiculous.
12:36 March 14, 2011 by Puffin
@mojofat

Isn't this the only way though that the child can keep in touch with the father's side of the family given that the father died
22:59 March 14, 2011 by mojofat
@Puffin

That's a separate question from the legal one. The mother is supposed to be the legal guardian and have final say. The grandparents should work through the mother to reconcile whatever issues are going on...again, we don't know who these grandparents are or why they're having an issue. It's disturbing to see a judge intervening in this way.
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