Parental authority refers to all of the rights and duties that parents have toward their children once they are born. Parents have a legal duty to raise their children properly and to protect them physically as well as psychologically.

Specifically, parents have the rights and duties of custody, supervision and education toward their children. They must feed them, maintain them and ensure their health and safety. Parents may delegate some of these duties; this is the case, for example, when a parent leaves his child at a daycare centre. Obviously, this delegation is temporary and limited by instructions given to the educators.

Parental authority entitles parents to make all decisions affecting the well-being of their minor children, notably in the following areas:

• choice of school;
  
• choice of residence;
  
• choice of daycare centre;
  
• consent to care required by their state of health;
  
• religious practices.

A child’s mother and father together hold and exercise parental authority. However, the following situations may arise:

• Separation of parents: even though custody of the children may be granted to one parent, the other parent retains parental authority. Needless to say, this parent’s authority will be more limited because it is usually the custodial parent who will make the daily decisions. The non-custodial parent still retains the right to supervise the maintenance and education of the children.
  
• Death of one of the parents: the surviving parent continues to exercise parental authority.

If they disagree, the parents can ask the court to make the decision that is in the child’s best interests. Similarly, the courts can also be called upon to resolve situations in which parents cannot agree on the child’s name or surname, the religious beliefs they should impart, the choice of school, and similar issues.

Parental authority ends:

• when the child becomes an adult (that is, when he turns 18);
  
• upon the emancipation of the child, either through marriage or court ruling;
  
• if the parents are deprived of parental authority by the court.

Even if the family environment is presumed to be best for a child’s well-being, sometimes parents are incapable of satisfying their child’s basic material, emotional, and moral needs. They may also compromise the child’s development and personal growth. The law in this case allows parents to be deprived of all or some of their parental authority.

Deprivation of parental authority is not a common occurrence. Before a parent can be deprived of parental authority, a “motion for deprivation of parental authority” must be made before the court. Proof must be made that there are serious reasons justifying total or partial deprivation, and that deprivation is in the child’s interest.

The law does not specify exactly what constitutes serious grounds. The courts recognize that behaviour that jeopardizes a child’s safety or substantial failure to fulfill parental duties constitutes serious grounds within the meaning of the law. The following are situations where parents have been deprived of their authority:

• Child abandonment: lack of interest, no contact (no letters, phone calls, or gifts); failure to meet financial obligations toward the child (for example, failure to make support payments); however, this behaviour must have continued over a certain number of years and must be voluntary and inexcusable to constitute abandonment. This would not be the case if the parent could not care for the child because of illness or if the lack of contact was due to the custodial parent’s actions.
  
• Indignities, violence, sexual abuse: these types of behaviour threaten the child’s health and safety; nevertheless, these acts must involve a certain degree of seriousness to justify deprivation of parental authority.

The imprisonment of a parent in and of itself is not a ground for depriving him of authority, unless the parent is in prison for abusing the child.

When it comes to sexual abuse, an offender may be deprived of his parental authority over his own children, even if they were not the actual victims of the abuse. It is enough for the offender to have abused another child toward whom he was acting as a parent. For example, if a person abuses his spouse’s child from a previous marriage and they are living together as a family, this can be grounds to deprive the offender of his parental authority over his own biological children.

A parent deprived of parental authority loses his rights toward the child but is not relieved of his obligations toward him. The deprived parent is still the child’s parent; his name still appears on the child’s birth certificate, and as he is still obliged to contribute to the child’s needs, he must in principle continue to make support payments.

As for the child, he keeps all of his rights related to filiation, including the right to inherit from the deprived parent. Also, a child who shares the name of the deprived parent will continue to do so, unless there is a request to have the name changed. If that happens, then the court can decide if – in the interest of the child – the name change should be granted.

If a third party (a new spouse, for example) wants to adopt a child, it is not necessary to obtain prior consent from the deprived parent. But the bailiff must serve on the deprived parent the motion for placement and adoption. In other words, the bailiff has to give a copy to the parent. In practice this is the deprived parent’s last chance to try and get parental authority back and prevent the adoption. After the adoption, it will be almost impossible to recover the rights which the parent lost when he was deprived of parental authority.

Courts are reluctant to grant custody of the child to anyone other than the parents. However, there are several reasons for which one or both parents may be unable to properly care for the child (illness, disability, prolonged absence, etc.).

In such situations, a third party, such as a grandparent, aunt or friend can seek custody of the child without having to prove that there is a serious reason to deprive the parents of parental authority. It is enough to show the court that the child’s best interests require him or her to be placed in the care of a third party and that the third party is able to provide the care and affection the child needs.

Unlike an action for deprivation of parental authority, the fact of granting custody of a child to a third party does not mean the parents lose their parental authority. Furthermore, the decision to grant custody must be made with a view to eventually returning the child to his family setting or at least to fostering a more harmonious relationship between parent and child.

The child may seek a name change when one or both parents have been deprived of parental authority.

The name change is not authorized automatically. As with an application for deprivation of parental authority, the name change must first be proven to be in the child’s interest (for example, if the child does not identify with the deprived parent, if the child wants his name changed, if keeping the name will be detrimental to the child, etc.).

A child’s name may be changed if he is abandoned by one of the parents without having to first seek the deprivation of this parent’s parental authority.

Yes. The courts may modify decisions concerning children if the deprived parent can prove that major changes have occurred in either the parent or child’s situation.

So if the deprived parent can prove that she has fixed the problems that caused her to lose parental authority and that she can now fulfill her responsibilities toward her child, the court may give back her parental authority if this is in the child’s interest.

The situation is completely different if the child has been adopted after the deprivation of parental authority. Adoption permanently breaks off the link that connected the deprived parent and the child. The parent loses all her rights with respect to the child, and cannot apply to regain parental authority or any of its elements.