Legal regulations distinguish between parental duties and obligations.

Thus, among the duties of parents is that of bringing up the child, by paying close attention to the child’s physical, mental and intellectual health and development, to the child’s education, teaching and professional training, according to their own convictions, the child’s abilities and needs.

Parents also have a duty to give the child the guidance and advice necessary to properly exercise the rights that the law recognizes.

The New Civil Code states that the parents have the duty to raise their child in conditions that ensure his or her physical, mental, spiritual, moral and social development in a harmonious way.

As for the obligations parents have, these are specific and explicitly mentioned in the legal provisions. Specifically, parents are obliged:

• To cooperate with the child and to respect his or her private, intimate life and child’s dignity;
• To present and allow the child to be informed and enlightened about the acts and facts that could affect him/her and to take his/her opinion into account;
• To take all necessary measures to protect and fulfil the rights of the child;
• To cooperate with natural and legal persons responsible for care, education and training of children.

“Parents shall exercise parental authority only in the best interests of the child, with due respect for the child’s person and shall involve the child in all decisions concerning him or her, taking into account his or her age and degree of maturity”, states the New Civil Code in Article 483.

It is also the Civil Code which states that parental authority is exercised until the child acquires full capacity but, at the same time, that a child owes respect to its parents, regardless of its age.

Rights and duties of parents towards minor children according to the provisions of the New Civil Code

Art. 97. “Both parents have the same rights and duties towards their minor children, without distinction as to whether they are by marriage, out of wedlock or by adoption. They shall exercise their parental rights solely in the interests of their children.”

Art. 98 – Measures concerning the person and property of children shall be taken by the parents by mutual agreement.

If one of the parents is dead, deprived of parental rights, placed under interdiction, or for any reason is unable to express his will, the other parent shall exercise parental rights alone.

Art. 99 – Whenever there is a disagreement between the parents regarding the exercise of parental rights or the performance of parental duties, the guardianship authority, after hearing the parents, shall decide according to the child’s best interests.

Art. 100 – The minor child shall live with his parents.

If the parents do not live together, they shall decide, by mutual agreement, which of them the child shall live with.

In case of disagreement between the parents, the court, after hearing the guardianship authority and the child, if the latter has reached the age of ten, shall decide, considering the interests of the child.

Art.101 – Parents have a duty to take care of their child’s person.

They are obliged to raise their child, taking care of his or her health and physical development, education, teaching and professional training, according to child characteristics, in accordance with the aims of people’s democratic state, in order to make it useful to the community.

Art. 102 – The guardianship authority may give permission to the child, at his request, after reaching the age of fourteen, to change the type of education or vocational training established by the parents or to have the accommodation required for the completion of education or vocational training.

Art. 103 – Parents have the right to request the return of the child from any person who is keeping him/her without right.

The court shall reject the request if the return is contrary to the interests of the child. The child shall be heard if he or she has reached the age of ten.

Art. 104 – If the physical, moral or intellectual development of the child is endangered in the parental home, the guardianship authority shall request the court to entrust the child to a care institution or to another person, with the consent of the child.

The parents must be summoned, the guardianship authority’s opinion must be obtained and the child must be heard if he or she has reached the age of ten.

The person to whom the child has been entrusted shall have, in relation to the child, only the rights and duties of the parents concerning the person of the child.

Art. 105 – Parents have the right and the duty to administer the property of their minor child and to represent him/her in civil acts, until he/she reaches the age of fourteen.

After reaching the age of fourteen, the minor shall exercise his rights and fulfil his obligations alone, but only with the prior consent of the parents to protect him against abuse by the third.

The provisions of Section II of this Chapter shall apply by analogy. However, the inventory provided for in Article 126 shall not be drawn up if the child has no property other than that for personal use.

Art. 106 – The parent has no right to the child’s property and the child has no right to the parent’s property, except the right to inheritance and maintenance.

Art. 107 – A minor child shall be maintained by his parents.

If the minor has an income of his own, which is not sufficient, the parents have the duty to provide the necessary conditions for his upbringing, education, teaching and professional training.