A Labour Party promise to introduce equal shared parenting rights has been welcomed with open arms by a lobby group representing fathers. 

Flimkien Missirijiet Inqumu was established to lobby for the rights of fathers in separation and divorce cases and argues that child custody should be split equally between the two parents. 

In its electoral manifesto, unveiled on Friday, the PL promised to “strengthen legal safeguards” to ensure equal parenting rights for both parents wherever possible. The party has also committed itself to requiring the family courts to decide on cases involving child custody within fixed timeframes, to prevent cases from dragging on for years. 

On Saturday, FMI said that it was delighted with the proposal and urged the Nationalist Party to make the same commitment during the campaign. 

“We will be actively collaborating with all stakeholders to ensure this new law comes into effect in a timely manner while ensuring on behalf of our members that the real best interests of the child are, possibly for the first time in local family courts history, actually safeguarded in practice not just spouted in meaningless rhetoric,” it said. 

The lobby group also urged politicians of all parties to work together in the next legislature to ensure that the rights of children and parents were furthered.