Child custody

Child custody and guardianship are legal terms which are sometimes used to describe the legal and practical relationship between a parent and his or her child, such as the right of the parent to make decisions for the child, and the parent's duty to care for the child. Following ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in most countries, terms such as "custody" and "access" or "visitation" have been superseded by the concepts of "residence" and "contact". Instead of a parent having "custody" of or "access" to a child, a child is now said to "reside" or have "contact" with a parent.

See also

• Child support
• Divorce
• Family law
• Fathers' rights
• Men's rights
• Parenting plan
• Parental Alienation Syndrome
• Paternity
• Shared parenting