Right to be heard by children in Custody Evaluation institution in the Iranian legal system

Abstract

Advances in the humanities have led to a shift in attitudes toward children and the issuance of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989. Social activists to reduce the negative consequences of divorce on children and their better adjustment after their parental divorce, have been wanted to change family law to provide children's participation in any judicial proceedings (such as custody and access disputes) to express their views about decisions affecting their lives and well-being. In this article we analyses with content method, Iranian family law statement, to extract capacity of children's legal right to decision- making in custody disputes. The findings show, three dimensions of approach in children's right and participation are identified: rights approach, best interests approach and mixed approach .The rights approach focuses on fundamentally rights such as: equality, dignity thus emphasis on the right of the child to be heard .the second approach seem to have negative views about children's right to participation because involving children in parental fighting, are very harmful. While the third approach states, it is necessary children's voice to be heard, as the same time emphasis on child protection. The paper notes, that under Iranian law, children's views are sometimes absent in decision- making particularly in custody litigation.