When children are victims of judges, a mother’s story
Mother Frida says: "With article 250, women enter hell, giving priority to double parenthood with the paternal surname"
ROME – Imagine “a little girl who stays with her eyes closed for 20 minutes – during the CTU – in connection with her recognized father”. Imagine “a judge who says in the courtroom that the Istanbul Convention – which protects women and minors from violence – is not in force. Frida embodies the exemplification of secondary victimization many times. In the courts, in legal processes, in social contexts”. It is the strong complaint that today, through the voice of the lawyer Camilla Di Leo, returned to be heard in the ‘heart’ of the institutions with a press conference in the Chamber of Deputies promoted by the deputy Stefania Ascari which saw other deputies and senators at the table, and a precise agenda of commitments for the future that does not forget the results of the investigative work of the previous Commission on femicide andthe 36 exemplary cases of mothers and children who as victims ended up on the bench defendants.
The little girl with closed eyes is Frida’s daughter: a story that denounces what happens to a mother in Italy if the father who didn’t want that pregnancy or even that birth changes his mind and retraces his steps. This is the crux of Article 250 on the late recognition of minors which discriminates between mothers and fathers and which, according to many experts in the field, should be reformed. There was a draft law which is currently in commission  ;justice where it arrived in January 2023 and which has yet to be scheduled, but in Frida’s case there are also two expert witnesses of the so-called parental alienation who guided the entire judicial proceeding when the minor’s biological father asked not only the recognition of the child, but also the reversal of placement. “In a similar case that I followed – explained the lawyer Di Leo – the Bologna court and the social service were far-sighted and it was established that a sentence of the State cannot be implemented without carrying out the three levels of judgment In the case of Frida, however, the social service was stuck on an incorrect interpretation. Thus, this is the paradox that is created: after the first degree, a minor is given a surname and perhaps on appeal it is removed. An absurdity and a serious harm to the minor. In this case there was no echo of the allegations of violence, nor was the child heard. No judge looked into it further.”
In the long legal proceedings at the Court of Venice, which reached the Court of Cassation, “I also reported – Di Leo recalled – a false social services report. Despite the fact that the visit to the home was canceled by the services 24 hours earlier, the report described her as an uncooperative mother, who oppressed her daughter’s sociability. This complaint went unnoticed”.
Mama Frida, in retracing “the hell into which she was dragged”, recalled the work of the two expert witnesses. “There was no paternal relationship, I was the only parent, my daughter was 18 months old and according to the expert she was conditioned by subliminal messages that aroused paternal reactivity. The appraisal – Frida recalled – was canceled due to formal defects. The ctu had met the other party without cross-examination. Furthermore, almost all the recordings were never filed” and in the few that survived “we could hear the threats made to me to have the little girl go to the community”. “The second expert, however, was not present in the register. He had a conviction for embezzlement and therefore did not have the requirement of good morality. The girl was 2 years old and according to him she did not accept her father for a fusional relationship with me not because of the other parent. All the sentences were based on these two reports and from article 250 on the recognition of the minor I ended up with law 54 on double parenting“, complained Frida.< /p>
“The latest decree undermines the dignity of my daughter. In the first instance I was sentenced to pay 48 thousand euros for having exceeded the right of defence. Today the Venice court condemns my daughter to foster care for social services and placement outside the family in a day care facility because the father is in fact a stranger. I am totally eliminated. But it will be – Frida is sure – a temporary placement because then it will go to the other party”. All “without ascertaining the facts”, he declared again because “the second expert wrote it: it was not up to the expert witness to reconstruct the truth”.
“With article 250, women enter hell: priority is given to double parenthood with the paternal surname“, he added. Italian politics, with the commitment of some frontline deputies and in the wake of the work of the previous Commission of Inquiry into Feminicide led by Valeria Valente, which issued an unprecedented report on institutional violence, has made a commitment also in the face of the fact that the Cartabia reform would still be ignored in many Courts. “We will return to ask for the scheduling of the proposed law on article 250 and we will ask another question”, announced PD deputy Laura Boldrini. PD senator Valeria Valente, who now leads the working group on institutional violence within the commission of inquiry into feminicide, recalled that she has already been asked to “acquire the case files from the Court of Venice”. The senator recalled that the Istanbul Convention is state law, while in Cartabia she explained that it is a matter of further investigation whether it is applicable even before its entry into force: “whether a second degree can be understood as a new procedure”.
Questions to the Minister of Justice, press conferences, scheduling of legislative proposals, “increasingly jointly signed documents” as proposed by Luana Zanella Avs and Stefania Ascari M5S, which must return to light the light so that these mothers are not left alone. This was clearly stated by the former senator Orietta Vanin, who once again asked that “the mayor of Venice meet Frida”.
Veronica Giannone, who in the previous legislature had fought alongside mothers and children against parental alienation, also spoke of “exposés” and recalled the international charters on children’s rights: “Let’s make noise” he said. “The violence of the institutions is the worst, the victims undergo a trial, end up in the dock and – concluded Ascari – it is torture for children“.