International Agenda for the 21st Century
The main Agenda is focused on the achieving a good design for the UK's child support system. However, other countries also need better child support systems, see Links to international sources about child support. Much of the main UK Agenda could be applied elsewhere, but some items don't appear in the UK Agenda because they only apply elsewhere. This section therefore identifies improvements that should be considered elsewhere, if they don't already apply.
| International Agenda |
| Base child support on bio-paternity |
The UK uses bio-paternity, based where requested on paternity tests, as the way of judging liability for child support. (There are obvious exceptions such as adoption & and gamete donation). All "Western" nations & states should adopt the same policy. They probably will over the next decade or two, but some are looking backwards not forwards, and need to get up-to-date and prepare for the 21st Century.
Here is a summary of how the UK goes about Presuming and establishing paternity.
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| No back-dating of child support liability |
Child support liability should apply from the time of the claim, not from the time of birth (or similar).
This is simply about controlling the build up of arrears.
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| Eliminate problems with Shari'ah law |
Shari'ah law is Islamic Divine Law. It covers aspects of the criminal justice system and of civil & family law. It is loaded against Muslim women in cases of divorce (inter alia). In particular, it automatically gives custody to the father if the child is over 7, with shared custody up to then. This is no more acceptable than automatically biasing custody towards the mother.
(Proposals to introduce Shari'ah law into the UK, where all parties are Muslims, must be denied, because Shari'ah law discriminates massively against women in many respects).
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Under development
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