French Father Who Wants Visitation Enters Fourth Day of Protest

Fathers in France are demanding the right to parent their children.

A father in Nantes, France, who is demanding visitation rights with his son has entered his fourth day of protest atop a crane. The Associated Press reports that Serge Charnay has said he wants France to “strengthen it’s law on shared custody.” Charnay has also said he will consider coming down after Justice Minister Christiane Taubira meets with SOS Papa, a fathers’ activist group on Monday afterno0n.

Charnay, who is divorced from his son’s mother, lost his visitation rights after he was convicted of taking his son on an “unauthorized vacation” for almost 2 months in 2011. However, he has said that he has no regrets for that “vacation” because “if I hadn’t I wouldn’t have seen him.”

Charnay joins a significant number of fathers and activists in France who want to see the child custody laws, which basically give the mother all parental rights without question, become more fair and balanced. Another father in the city of Strasbourg, France, “briefly occupied a crane” this weekend as well until police were able to convince him to come down. he had very similar grievances to Charnay, and was demanding visitation with his child as well.

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Photo: AP/David Vincent