A father's rights advocacy group is holding up a new parental law in Denmark as an example Bermuda should follow.

ChildWatch, co-founded by Edward Tavares, 51, and Eddie Fisher, 57, was started roughly ten years ago primarily to protest alleged preferential treatment in the courts which, the group claims, supports women as preferred parents.

According to the Copenhagen Post newspaper, the law, which became valid on October 1, is designed to give additional rights and responsibilities to both fathers and mothers.

Mr. Tavares told The Royal Gazette: "Presently, the status quo in Bermuda is that one parent (usually the mother) gets sole custody and care and control of the children.

"And the father usually get visitation every other weekend, which is in total 48 days per year.

"Government's Throne Speech stated 'The family is the foundation of society'. It is the base upon which a strong community stands.

"With that in mind, we propose that much needed in Bermuda is the 'Shared Parenting Law Reform' consisting of family counsellors and mediation versus the adversarial."

Mr. Tavares said Australia and Italy, along with a number of US States, have gone to the "Shared Parenting Law Reform" and many others are in the process of implementing similar measures.

"There have been many studies done on shared parenting," he added. "One study found that a boy's overall adjustment in a shared-parenting-time arrangement was similar to that in happy, intact families.

"Also, children with shared parenting time were also much more likely to be happy with the length of time they were with each parent — not feeling as one parent was really more like an aunt and uncle.

ChildWatch is providing another of its series of free educational programmes, themed "Why Children Need Both Parents in Separated Families", with the next taking place on November 21 at St. Theresa's Cathedral Hall.

Its focus will be "What Happens to Children and Their Families". Their December 5 workshop will center on "Victims of Separated Families-the Missing Years".

The public is invited to attend. For more information log onto www.childwatch.bm or contact Edward Tavares at 334-8060 or Eddie Fisher at 234-2858.