Children in Italy have the legal right not to visit their grandparents

Italy’s Supreme Court has ruled that children cannot be forced to see their grandparents.

The ruling by Italy’s Supreme Court follows an appeal by the parents of two children against an earlier ruling by a youth court in Milan.

That court ordered the youths to spend time with their paternal grandparents after the elderly couple complained that the children’s parents had “put up barriers” that prevented them from maintaining contact amid an ongoing family feud.

In 2019, despite objections from the parents, the juvenile court ordered the children to meet their grandparents under the supervision of the social worker; an attempt by the parents to appeal failed.

But the Court of Cassation overturned the decision this week, acknowledging that while there was “no doubt” that the two children had benefited from a generational bond, the children themselves had expressed disgust at being forced to see her grandparents in light of their broken relationship.

The ruling ruled that children’s rights must prevail over grandparents’ in scenarios involving “an unwanted and unwanted relationship”.

Children over the age of 12 can decide whether they want to maintain a relationship with their grandparents and cannot be forced to do so, it said.

Cristina Maggia, president of Brescia’s minor court, told the Italian outlet Vita in response to the decision: “Children should be able to have relationships with grandparents and other family members where those relationships are useful and productive for the well-being of the child itself. . ” .

“If this is not the case, if the relationship is forced on the children, then the grandparents have no right to maintain a relationship with the grandchildren.”

In Italy, grandparents can ask the court to order parents to arrange for their children to see their grandparents if it is in the best interests of the child. It was introduced in part to address situations where divorced couples refused to allow their children to see grandparents from the other side of the family (stock photo).

Under a 2006 law in Italy, grandparents prevented by the children’s parents from seeing their grandchildren retain the right to ask a court to examine whether such restrictions harm the child’s best interests.

If the court finds that the child’s best interests have been violated, it can order the parents to allow their children to make routine visits to the grandparents in the presence of social workers.

This law was enacted in part to ensure that children whose parents are divorced or otherwise separated can continue to maintain a relationship with their prospective parents in the event that one or both parents refuse to allow them to be grandparents to the other side of the family. see.

A similar article drawn up in the Italian Civil Code in 2013 reiterated this, but the Termination Court in 2018 specified that grandparents do not have an “unconditional right” to see their grandchildren.

All cases involving whether grandparents are allowed to see their children will henceforth be investigated by a judge according to the “exclusive interest of the minor”.