【雅思课外精读】在日本离婚之后，孩子应该归谁

　　【雅思课外精读】在日本离婚之后，孩子应该归谁   原文译文   注：本文选自10月18日《华盛顿邮报》

　　In Japan, divorce can mean losing access to children. Many parents want that to change.

　　在日本，离婚可能意味着失去孩子。许多家长希望改变这种状况。

　　1.When Izumi finally tired of her husband’s multiple affairs, she decided it was time to separate and made plans to take their three young children with her. But her husband was one step ahead. He prevented her from taking the children and soon denied her the right to even see them after their divorce.

　　终于，泉厌倦了丈夫的多次出轨，她决定带着三个孩子和他离婚。但是她丈夫先下手了。他不让她带走孩子，还不准她在离婚后探视孩子。

　　2.That was three years ago. Izumi, who asked for her family name to be withheld to protect her children’s identities, hasn’t met them since. Within a month, Izumi said, her children had been taught to say: “I hate my mom.”

　　那是三年前的事了。为了保护孩子，泉要求匿名。她说，离婚之后，她就再也没有见过孩子们了。泉说，离婚不到一个月，别人就教她的孩子说：“我讨厌妈妈。”

　　3.But when she took her case to court, she received a reply that is all too familiar to thousands of Japanese parents. The children were now settled with a former spouse, and visits would only disturb them and their new household, a judge said before turning sole custody over to the father. Izumi would have to make do with being sent photographs once a month.

　　她向法院提起了诉讼，但是收到了成千上万日本父母都会受到的千篇一律的回复。在将监护权移交给孩子父亲的时候，一名法官称，孩子现在与前夫住在一起，探视会打扰孩子们，也会打扰到他们的新家庭。泉只好每月给孩子们寄一次照片。

　　4.Japan is unusual among developed nations in not recognizing the concept of joint custody. Its custom of granting sole custody to one parent means hundreds of thousands of mothers and fathers face potential barriers to see their children, and children are being denied the right to see both of their parents as they grow up, lawyers say.

　　日本不承认共同监护权，这在发达国家中是很少见的。律师称，日本允许单独监护权，这意味着成千上万的父亲或者母亲被剥夺了探视孩子的权利，而孩子也被剥夺了在成长过程中有父母陪伴的权利。

　　5.But now, a combination of international pressure and legal effort in Japan could bring areexamination of Japan’s custody laws.

　　但现在，在国际压力和日本法律界努力的共同作用下，日本可能会重新审视其监护权相关法律。

　　6.Tomoshi Sakka, a lawyer who has handled rights cases, said there is growing public awareness that children have fundamental rights of their own to see both parents. “The law tends to see the issues in terms of parents but not of children’s fundamental rights,” he said.

　　曾处理过类似维权案件的律师Tomoshi Sakka说，公众越来越意识到，孩子有看望父母双方的基本权利。“法律不是从孩子基本权利的角度出发的, 而是从父母的角度出发的。”他说。

　　7.Sakka has filed three “intertwined” cases to court, arguing that parents have a fundamental human right under Japan’s constitution to see their children, that the lack of a law preventing parents leaving with their children is an unconstitutional violation of children’s rights and that courts should enforce parental visitation rights.

　　Sakka向法院提交了三个联系紧密的案件，并指出，父母有权探视自己的孩子，日本没有法律阻止父母离弃儿童是对儿童权利的一种侵犯，违背了宪法。他还指出，法院应当实施父母探视权法案。