Lawmakers aim for family law reforms by presidential elections

The House legal affairs committee on Wednesday announced talks will begin early next month in an effort to push through important family law reforms before the presidential elections in February 2023.

Committee president Nicos Tornaritis said that the discussion will begin on September 7 with the first four bills, followed by the other four bills scheduled for a later date.

“I wish and hope very soon that the government will proceed with the submission of the rest of the bills,” Tornaritis said and expressed the hope that everyone on the committee will operate with the same zeal and determination away from any petty party interest, to bring results in the public interest.

Tornaritis explained that the goal is to have a child-centred family law, which will be covered by all international treaties and especially those of the United Nations.

“We want to make justice more direct, more qualitative and more flexible because we are talking about our children and children who obviously have problems since they come from a marriage that has broken up,” he said.

He added that in order to speed up the proceedings, the first act will be to revise the constitution so that a single judge can hear cases involving family disputes and not three judges as is done today.

Meanwhile, the issue of parental protection, parental responsibility, children’s relationships with parents and many other issues will also be addressed, Tornaritis concluded.