Statistics and numbers, facts and figures— all attest to the importance of the project which the Syrian Commission for Family Affairs has posed for discussion, a project finely crafted by the commission’s legal expert Dr. Farouq al-Basha.

However, in opposition there were a number of objections raised which prevented the project’s confirmation barring a new formulation which would take into account the observations of the discussants from various fields, including legal experts, social and educational specialists, clerics and others, which ultimately delayed taking action on the matter until further notice.
The project gets to the heart of the Syrian Commission for Family Affairs’ work, targeting a number of issues. The new fund, according to the initial project proposal, is envisioned as a public-community joint institution to achieve humanitarian goals through the gathering or levying of resources, including child-support funds or legally or judicially imposed payments, the raising of financial donations and bequests and social solidarity support which are set aside yearly in the state budget, and by undertaking appropriate measures to produce legitimate sources of funding to enable it to accomplish its mission, within a framework of plans and work programs of different durations. And among the numerous means and resources for meeting some of their needs, the most important is child support and support for “those with special needs”, meaning every family which needs financial support because of poverty.
In the matter of child-support, it has been defined as providing everything the child needs to live a dignified life as compared to those like him, and it includes food and clothing and housing and medical care and disability services and education.
Child support is the father’s obligation in which the mother shares according to the assessment of the court if she has the financial means, and the funds set aside for the child are not to be spent on anything else unless determined by the court and only within the permitted bounds. The courts are the ultimate arbiter of the details and interpretation of all matters related to child-support law and social solidarity.
The importance of this program lies in the fact that it takes into account the real-life facts and figures related to the society’s needs in this matter, whether in terms of the percentage of poverty in Syria, or in terms of cases of divorce: more than one for every five marriages (22.01%) registered in the province of Damascus alone in 2005, meaning a lot of families and children affected by divorce.
The project was proposed by the Syrian Commission for Family Affairs along with a number of parties, and they invited all government and private organization to attend in the interests of getting everyone’s views by way of a round table discussion of the logistics of the matter, in order to produce a project that integrated everyone’s input.
As for the opening, it was attended by Dr. Mohammad Hassoun, Mufti of the Republic who welcomed the project as being important for the family and the community and which coincided with the tenets of Islamic Law which seeks the security of the family—despite his assurance that any matter contrary to Islamic Law would meet strong opposition.
And so discussions became heated, and all agreed to reformulate the project taking into account the proposed observations...Meanwhile, the project waits until further notice.

Rahada Abdush, 13/4/2009, (Child-Support and Social Solidarity Fund: Awaiting Further Notice…)

Translated by: Tyler Golson

source in Arabic..