In UK, children belong to the state In Britain, the state has the responsibility to see to it that all the rights of children are respected

Dr Masimba Mavaza

British egregious politician announced that the government plans “to nationalise the family”, but many people rebutted that manifest absurdity with admirable common sense and absolute conviction. 

It was Margaret Hodge, commissar emeritus of Islington, a township in London, who was once a super-Blairite and a children’s minister, who again said children belong to the State. 

It is every person’s informed belief that a mother automatically has parental responsibility for her child from birth. 

A father usually has parental responsibility if he is either: married to the child’s mother and listed on the birth certificate (after a certain date, depending on which part of the UK the child was born in).

Parents have no power over their children. It is the government which seek to deliver the best interest of the child. 

In England, a child has the right to life, survival and development. The child has the right to have their views respected and to have their best interests considered at all times.

The child has the right to a name and nationality, freedom of expression and access to information about them. 

It is the state which has the responsibility to see to it that all the rights of children are respected.  

Then in April 2018, as the parents of a terminally ill toddler in Liverpool, England, fought with the country’s Supreme Court over the child’s fate, the then UK Prime Minister Theresa May explained how children in the United Kingdom are actually “owned” by the State.

Upon the news of a high court ordering life support removed from two-year-old Alfie Evans, English Prime Minister Theresa May issued a brief, friendly reminder to citizens of the UK that the all-powerful State actually owns their children.

This means that parents are only donors and registered keepers of the children. 

Theresa May clearly cleared the air by saying: “Yes, we’re gracious enough to allow your kids to reside with you and for you to make lots of the decisions in their day-to-day lives, but when the rubber meets the road, we just want you to remember that the Almighty State straight-up owns your kids and will do with them as we will.

“We make all the big decisions, and you have pretty much zero say when it comes right down to it. Just keep that in mind and stay in your place.”

True to her words, many people in the UK have lost their children to the state. 

Across the UK, there are many laws which aim to keep children safe and protect their rights. These laws, ensure children’s voices are heard. These laws set out when a child can take part in various activities, even when a child can go to church or can go to school. 

The state has put up laws to make sure children have access to education. Actually, many government schools are free.

The fathers of the children pay the fees, the fathers being the state. It is actually the government which provides for children having a safe home, it does not matter that a parent pays the fees. 

There are laws and regulations which provide support for children who need to leave home to run away from the parents.  The state goes further again to make sure children are safe if they decide to get a job. 

Again, the state makes sure children’s personal information is safe. When it comes to the parental responsibility, all mothers and most fathers have legal rights and responsibilities as parents known as ‘parental responsibility’.

 When one has parental responsibility, his or her most important roles are to: provide a home for the child, this includes to protect and maintain the child. 

The most tricky responsibility is that of disciplining the child. It is a crime to smack your child and you can lose access to your children and in most cases you can win yourself a room amongst the thieves in a police jail. 

As a parent, you are given the responsibility of choosing and providing for the child’s education and agreeing to the child’s medical treatment, naming the child and agreeing to any change of name and looking after the child’s property.

Parents have to ensure that their child is supported financially, whether they have parental responsibility or not. 

If you do not provide for the child even if the child belongs to the state, the state will force you. 

Money can be deducted from your salary to cater for the child’s maintenance. If you have parental responsibility for a child, but you do not live with them, it does not mean you have a right to spend time with your children. 

However, the other parent must include you when making important decisions about their lives.

You do not always need to get the consent of the other parent for routine decisions, even if they also have parental responsibility.

If it’s a major decision (for example, one of you wants to move abroad with your children) both parents with responsibility must agree in writing.

If you cannot agree, a judge will then make a decision which is in the children’s best interests.

You must make sure your children are financially supported, whether you have parental responsibility or not.

The Convention on the Rights of the Child has 54 articles (parts), and most of these articles list a different right that children have, and different responsibilities that the government, and others, have to make sure that children have these rights.

This includes making sure that children are equal. 

The government must make sure that all children have the rights in the convention, regardless of their race, their parent’s race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national, ethnic or social origin, property, disability, birth or other status (Article 2). 

Again, the government must make sure that child’s best interests are taken into account when any decision is made which affects the child (Article 3).

On paper the government must respect the rights of the parents/family/carers to raise the child (Article 5).

The government must make sure that a child is registered at birth (i.e. that he has a birth certificate), and that he has a name and a nationality and that he knows who his parents are (Articles 7 and 8). 

So many people have lost children to the government.   If a child makes a complaint the police will swoop in and arrest. 

Tongai was surprised to see two police officers standing by his bed. Before he could sit up he was roughed up, handcuffed and bundled in the car in his night dressing. 

He was told that he had assaulted his 15-year-old daughter. He was surprised because he did not even touch her. He had simply warned her against playing with boys. 

Nobody was listening, he was booked and bailed out. He was given a 30-day ban from seeing his children. So, Tongai had to move into a bed and breakfast.  

He was reminded that he is not the owner of these children. They were the property of the state. 

Many Zimbabweans are in unending legal battles fighting to get their children back. 

Parents are separated from their children because of simple misunderstandings. 

In every situation, the children are believed and the parents are vilified. 

The law strips the parents off their parenthood and is again too quick to blame them for failed parenthood. 

We are living in a strange world where children are not yours. 

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