The case of Severina Vuckovic and her fight for the custody of a minor child brought to the public’s attention numerous problems of the system that many are dealing with. Proceedings that should be resolved urgently, in some cases like this one, which has attracted a lot of attention from the regional public, have been going on for a whole decade.
Lawsuit after lawsuit, 11 years without ending the proceedings – that is, almost the entire life of the child that is being decided in court.
“It’s not just one procedure, related to that custody and everything that produced that procedure, you had over 60, maybe even over 100 procedures that are all basically based on that decision on custody and that is certainly traumatizing”, said Jasminka Bilos, Severina’s lawyer.
This is contrary to the principles of fairness and a trial within a reasonable time, the lawyer points out and adds that this kind of decision additionally retaliates.
“The county court is reviewing the decision from 2019, and after that there were other proceedings, other situations, the circumstances changed, so it’s actually absurd,” Bilos added.
How much longer it may take, the lawyer cannot estimate. Many parents go through protracted court proceedings like this, but there are still more women among them, warns the Center for Women’s Studies.
“First of all, it is par excellence the abuse of children through the procedural framework of the judiciary, and then, of course, the abuse of individual parents. Then the woman is exposed even more by fighting for her own child and to stay with her own child… some women even died in the process. Life is not immune to legal procedure”, stated Dorotea Susak, from the Center for Women’s Studies.
One of such painful examples was presented by a lawyer in TV program.
“A mother wants to see her child, a mother who is sick, who has a progressive disease that prevents her from moving physically, an autoimmune disease, so we can’t go down the stairs to see the child, how can we explain that the case lasts five years, and the mother dies without seeing that child. And at the same time, we have in the file medical documentation from our public institutions where psychiatrists and psychologists spoke with the children, where they say that the child is suffering because he cannot see his mother”, said lawyer Sanja Bezbradica.
The relevant minister also admitted that the case is taking too long. Malenica also said that the Ministry is taking steps to shorten the duration of court proceedings. There is no political will for such a reform, warns the parliamentary representative who follows this issue, N1 writes.
E.Dz.
