Periodic Reporting for period 1 - LeMoKiAC (Lesbian Moms and Their Kids At Court)
Periodo di rendicontazione: 2021-07-01 al 2023-06-30
In the last years, the European Union (especially the European Court of Human Rights - ECHR) opened up to a new conception of kinship ties, including de facto relations with no biogenetical link. However, single States have still restrictive legislations so that non-conventional families (such as same-sex families) need to ask Courts to recognize the filiation status between the Intended Parent (IP) and their children. To what extent are children’s perspective on their kinship ties are taken into account? To what extent the Article 12.2 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), namely the right to be listened to and taken seriously in judicial and administrative proceedings affecting children, is guaranteed within these procedures? LeMoKiAC addresses the lack of ethnographic accounts on the implementation of 12.2 UNCRC article within judicial and administrative proceeding initiated by lesbian-headed households looking for juridic recognition as well as the lack of child-centred theoretical concepts for the analysis of children as social actors within family relations. It focused on procedures for the legal recognition of French and Italian intended mothers in lesbian-headed households. Its overarching aim was to investigate the extent to which children’s voices are listened to by mothers and by professionals within such procedures. It addressed an ethnographic and a theoretical/methodological:
1) What are the variables affecting the exercise of Article 12.2 in the recognition of lesbian-headed households?
2) How are children recognised as social actors of kinship relations?
3) How can an ethnographic child-centred knowledge of the politicisation of childhood promote children’s welfare and rights?
Its aim was to produce empirical results, theoretical child-centred and gender-sensitive concepts, and art-based child-centred dissemination products.
1) What are the variables affecting the exercise of Article 12.2 in the recognition of lesbian-headed households?
2) How are children recognised as social actors of kinship relations?
3) How can an ethnographic child-centred knowledge of the politicisation of childhood promote children’s welfare and rights?
Its aim was to produce empirical results, theoretical child-centred and gender-sensitive concepts, and art-based child-centred dissemination products.
As planned, two ethnographic local studies were realized in two countries in a phase of evolving legal recognition of lesbian IM. According to ILGA’s Rainbow Europe Map – a chart evaluating the current status of laws, policies and practices affecting LGBTI people in Europe – provides France with an overall score of 56% and ranked it 13th out of 49 countries and, on the thematic criteria “family rights”, 57% and a ranking of 15th. According to the law on same-sex marriages (2013), lesbian IM can ask either for full adoption if the child is under 15 and the IM are married; if not, simple adoption and, if the legal mother does not provide authorisation to adoption, the demande de droit aux relations familiales [request for the right to family relation] or the délégation de l’autorité parentale [delegation of parental authority]. The revision of the law on bioethics adopted on July 2020 introduced anticipated IM recognition in case of Assisted Reproductive Technology ART. However, the implementation of these procedures is heterogeneous according to the tribunal and changes over the years according to the circulation of judges. ILGA ranks Italy number 34/49 with a total score of 23% and, for the thematic criteria “family”, gave a score of 15% and the 27th position. Although the law on civil unions voted into place in 2016 doesn’t recognise same-sex parenting, some municipalities have authorised the inscription of the lesbian IM on the child’s birth certificate (under the condition that the IM’s name appears on the documents of the clinic abroad where ART has been realised) and some courts have accepted the request for adozione in casi particolari [adoption in special cases] on condition of the legal mother's consent and provided that the IM can demonstrate that they have already developed affective ties with the child.
A trilingual website (English, French, Italian) (https://lemokiac.hypotheses.org/) and a flyer have been prepared in order to recruit research participants. The flyer was distributed thanks to personal and professional contacts through email, whattsapp, social networks and associations.
Data on the preparation of the legal file have been collected within both domestic and legal-administrative kinship spaces:
The methodology included: 1) ethnographic participant observation with a reflexive approach; 2) informal conversations with children using a set of ethnographic child-centred research techniques (i.e. observation of first uses of kinship language, production of kinship charts, informal conversations, written data) according to the participant’s age, competences and social characteristics; 3) biographical interviews with parents; 4) semi-structured interviews with professionals; 5) a body of written documents (i.e. applications, sentences, reports by neuropsychiatrists etc.
Source: https://www.rainbow-europe.org/.
Overview of the results and their exploitation dissemination
I produced i) an ethnographic account of legal procedures for the recognition of intentional kinship within lesbian-parented families, including both children’s perspectives and the inclusion of the interest of the children by professionals (FORM OF DISSEMINATION: Public conferences (n.2) and research paper (n.1); 2) child-centred kinship concepts (Public conference (n.1) Special Issue (n.1) Presentation of the special issue (n.1); ii) Creative ethno-graphic practices (Workshop in a public conference (n.1) Article in an high-impact journal (n.1) Affect-theater script (n.1) Workshops (n.1 for children and n.1 for adults)
A trilingual website (English, French, Italian) (https://lemokiac.hypotheses.org/) and a flyer have been prepared in order to recruit research participants. The flyer was distributed thanks to personal and professional contacts through email, whattsapp, social networks and associations.
Data on the preparation of the legal file have been collected within both domestic and legal-administrative kinship spaces:
The methodology included: 1) ethnographic participant observation with a reflexive approach; 2) informal conversations with children using a set of ethnographic child-centred research techniques (i.e. observation of first uses of kinship language, production of kinship charts, informal conversations, written data) according to the participant’s age, competences and social characteristics; 3) biographical interviews with parents; 4) semi-structured interviews with professionals; 5) a body of written documents (i.e. applications, sentences, reports by neuropsychiatrists etc.
Source: https://www.rainbow-europe.org/.
Overview of the results and their exploitation dissemination
I produced i) an ethnographic account of legal procedures for the recognition of intentional kinship within lesbian-parented families, including both children’s perspectives and the inclusion of the interest of the children by professionals (FORM OF DISSEMINATION: Public conferences (n.2) and research paper (n.1); 2) child-centred kinship concepts (Public conference (n.1) Special Issue (n.1) Presentation of the special issue (n.1); ii) Creative ethno-graphic practices (Workshop in a public conference (n.1) Article in an high-impact journal (n.1) Affect-theater script (n.1) Workshops (n.1 for children and n.1 for adults)
The expected result until the end of the project can’t unfortunately be realized because of the unexpected end of the Fellowship. The potential impact is i) the realization of further publication (1 is going to be submitted by January, 31st; a second one has been planned); ii) a collective ERC or ANR (Agence National de la Recherche) project.