Your parents must ensure that you have everything that you need, such as a place to live, as well as food and clothing. Therefore, each parent must contribute their share of the costs to cover your needs. This is part of their right and also their obligation to care for you.
Contribution to maintenance
Each of your parents has an obligation to financially support your everyday needs, for example, food, health care and education. Even if only one of your parents has custody over you, the other parent must provide his/her financial contribution to ensure that you have everything you need.
If the other parent does not voluntarily contribute his/her share of costs for your maintenance, the parent that you are living with may request that the maintenance costs are collected from the other parent by a court order.
Read more about the obligation to financially support you from the parent’s perspective.
Length of the decision-making & Enforcement process
To effectively protect your right to development, issues regarding your maintenance should be determined as soon as possible. There should not be any unnecessary delays in these proceedings.
If the court has ordered one of your parents to contribute to your maintenance, this decision should be enforced as soon as possible. A lengthy enforcement procedure may negatively affect your rights and interests and also violate the right to a fair trial for you and the parent that you are living with.