6th Annual ICSP Conference A Success
Early this month, I had the privilege of attending in Athens, Greece, the 6th Conference of the International Council on Shared Parenting (ICSP) organized around the theme of New Paradigms: Research and Practice on Shared Parenting. NPO has been a strong supporter of ICSP and an active participant in its programs since ICSP was created about a decade ago, including taking the lead on organizing the 2017 NPO/ICSP conference in Boston, the videos of which are available here.
The ICSP is an extraordinary organization that brings together people from three distinct spheres: “leading scientists in the field of shared parenting who are able to share their current research; leading child and family legal and mental health practitioners who specialize in the area of parental separation and are able to share information on best practices with children and families; and members of civil society who are actively involved in the politics of law reform to establish shared parenting as the foundation of family law.”
The conference in Athens, like previous ICSP conferences in both Europe and North America, reflected this diversity of perspectives on shared parenting. More than 200 delegates from 34 countries attended either in person or online the 74 plenary, workshop, and panel presentations from over 100 speakers representing each of the three groups that ICSP brings together.
The conference presented up-to-date information on a wide variety of shared parenting issues: international comparisons of shared parenting laws, best practices in child- and family-friendly justice, best practices in child- and family-friendly mental health intervention, experiences of children and families affected by domestic violence and parental alienation, and overcoming barriers to the establishment of shared parenting practices.
The shared parenting movement faces similar obstacles in many countries, The opportunity to share information about research and both the successes and failures of various attempts to create a new paradigm of separated parenting, one that keeps both parents fully engaged in raising their children is invaluable.
As is its practice, ICSP has published the main conclusions of the conference. I’ll highlight just one of those important conclusions here:
On the basis of current research evidence, social scientists can now confidently recommend presumptive shared parenting to policy makers. Shared parenting now has enough evidence that the burden of proof should fall to those who oppose it rather than those who promote it.
For those who missed the conference, most of the videos will be published in the future. NPO will, of course, share the links when they become available.
