If the new Family Code, which will be submitted to referendum on September 25th,has a supreme objective it is to meet the urgent needs of all existing family structures in the country by opening a range of rights to provide solution to their problems, to respond to their claims and to offer opportunities.
In other words, it is a matter of supporting, by means of a legal norm of wide scope, everything concerning family law, and in turn, with the gradual transformations that society has undergone and, with it the fundamental cell that sustains it.
As never before, the Family Code provides the opportunity to strengthen family ties, to access collegiate conflict resolution, to open space for all members of a family to be heard, cared for and respected; it recognizes diversity and the value of affection. Each of the chapters of the Code is a door to inclusion, understanding and, logically, love.
THE OTHER FAMILY
No one doubts that Cubans are very family-oriented people by nature. This means that, in addition to the blood family, there are almost always people around us with whom we establish strong bonds based on affection.
In many cases, these people do come to occupy the place of a relative in every sense of the word, literally taking on functions and adopting attitudes that are traditionally reserved for ascendants, descendants or siblings. However, in the current legislation they have no recognition whatsoever.
The new Family Code also has the merit of resolving this conflict. That is why, in Chapter I of Title III, dedicated to kinship, it defines it as the one recognized on the basis of socio-affective ties, and the so-called kinship by affinity.
The first is based on the will and behavior between persons affectively linked by a stable and sustained relationship over time that can justify a filiation. It clarifies that it is recognized exceptionally by the competent court and has the same effects as blood relationship.
From this first one, the recognition of multiparentality can be derived, when the existence of a notorious and stable socio-affective family bond is proven, regardless of the existence or not of a biological bond between a person and the daughter or son; with the behavior of those who, as a legal mother or father, have meritoriously fulfilled the duties that correspond to them by reason of the socially and familiarly constructed paternity or maternity, and of those who by their intention, will and performance can be presumed to be mothers or fathers.
Kinship by affinity, on the other hand, is manifested in the same line and degree, between: a) a person and the blood relatives of his/her spouse or registered common-law partner; and b) a person and the spouses or registered common-law partners of his/her blood relatives.
From the latter derives a figure that, although it is recognized for the first time within the family law in Cuba, it has existed for a long time and has, undoubtedly, a determining role in the structure of many Cuban families: the related mothers and fathers, defined in Chapter IV of Title v of the Code as the spouses or the affective domestic partners who live with the person in charge of the custody and care of the child or adolescent, as a consequence of the formation of reconstituted families.
These are those who are popularly known as stepmothers and stepfathers and who, in many cases, fulfill the real function of mothers or fathers but, in the eyes of the law, have no rights whatsoever. In fact, despite the strong bonds they may have created with their related son or daughter, once the relationship has ended, they are deprived of all communication with them (something that is also resolved by the Code).
It is also the case that, for a certain period of time, they are left in charge of these minors, by express decision of their biological mother or father, but there is no support for this in the legislation in force.
This is undoubtedly a vital step to save emotional ties that do not have to be broken, unless it is determined by the competent authorities, in the best interests of children or adolescents. It is, in short, another way to save love, as the main support of a family structure.
COMMUNICATION: A NECESSITY TURNED INTO A RIGHT
Although the importance of communication is socially recognized as a habitual and essential practice in human relations, this is not the case in everyday reality.
Specifically within families, communication is often conditioned, depending on unilateral interests, conflicts, resentments, marital breakups, among other causes. The result is that a person is deprived of his or her relations with another person who is affectively close to him or her, thus biasing what should be clearly a right.
That is why the Family Code specifies that this basic principle of the relationships between relatives (ascendants, descendants, siblings and other relatives and persons affectively close to them that justify a legitimate interest), can only be limited by judicial decision, based on the best interests of the child or adolescent and in the benefit of the elderly or disabled adult, according to their self-determination, wills, wishes and preferences.
This provision covers all areas of communication, including those related to the use of technological means.
This topic takes a chapter of the new code because it is very sad that a parent who does not live with his or her children is limited to talk to them, spend time together; call each other on the phone. It is inconceivable that grandparents are deprived of essential contact with their grandchildren and vice versa; that an elderly or disabled person cannot see or talk to relatives other than his or her caregiver, and many other variants of the problem.
It also happens that children or elderly people are prevented, by any of the family members, from being able to relate to people who are affectively close to them, despite not having blood ties.
That is why this Code also establishes the duty, for those who are responsible for the care of minors, elderly or disabled persons, to facilitate such communication, because it is ultimately a need based on affection and bonds that are not broken by abrupt separation.
Cutting off the lines of contact between people who love each other can clearly be traumatic. There is no doubt that in older or sick adults it generates states of depression and anguish, as well as for those who are prevented from contact. For children and adolescents, it can mean the existence of traumas that accompany them throughout their lives, open wounds that do not heal and, if they do, leave indelible traces that translate into rebellious, erroneous and harmful behavior.
Recognizing this right and protecting it under the law is undoubtedly a decisive step towards breaking down barriers that are almost always imposed by those who suffer the least from this isolation.
It is an act of justice and humanism, which also speaks of the deep sensitivity and respect that this Code shows for feelings and emotions in their purest state.
Therefore, we are able to see how advanced the text is, in which, in the words of the vice-president of the National Union of Jurists of Cuba, Yamila González Ferrer, PhD, what we may not like does not affect us either and may, however, be very beneficial for another Cuban family.
Translated by ESTI
