Decision of the mother not to inform her son about his father

Facts

A. is the single mother of C., born in 2012. Father B. has been convicted of serious sexual offences, including the rape of C.'s half-sister. In 2017, the Child and Adult Protection Authority (KESB) granted the father supervised visitation rights, but he later renounced them. In 2021, the father again requested contact with his son. The mother firmly opposed this. The KESB then ordered the mother to have C. informed by the Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Service (KJP) about his father, in order to allow him to confront him and possibly grant him visitation rights later on. The mother appealed against this decision.

Considerations

The Federal Tribunal considers that the KESB's order is not in accordance with the law. As long as personal relations are not regulated by the authorities, it is up to the mother, the sole holder of parental authority and custody, to decide whether and when her son should be informed about his father. The KESB could not give her such an…