GOVERNMENT ENDORSES FINAL FAMILY BILL

ZAGREB, June 26 (Hina) - Croatia's government on Thursday unanimously endorsed a final draft family law changing, among other things, the definition of a mother, who previously was considered only the woman who gave birth to the child in question. #L# Under the bill, the woman with whose egg the child was conceived is given the possibility to contest the motherhood of the woman who gave birth to the child. Like fatherhood, motherhood becomes a refutable presumption because it will be possible to dispute or prove it in court. Having acknowledged some parliamentary remarks, the government now defines a common-law marriage as a union between an unmarried man and an unmarried woman who have lived together for at least three years and have a child together. The government is willing to retain the possibility to allow underage marriages in justifiable cases, and to extend the age difference between an adoptive parent and an adoptive child to 45 years. The ministers had no remarks to the draft family law, with the exception of Deputy PM Ante Simonic of the Croatian Peasant Party (HSS), who welcomed the decision that same-sex unions will not be legislated in the family law but in a separate one, as the HSS has been advocating. The right to diversity and personal choice has to be respected, Simonic said, applauding the fact that a bill on same-sex unions gives homosexuals living together the right to support their partners and the possibility to regulate property relations. Said bill is the first Croatian act regulating homosexual unions. The ministers unanimously backed the government's proposal to punish family violence more harshly. For the first time, abusers could be removed for as long as three months from the flat or house they live in with the victims. Abusers could also be issued with a restraining order for a period of up to one year. The government also forwarded into parliament a bill on gender equality. (hina) ha