Swiss Civil Code

¹ If the par­ents are not mar­ried to each oth­er and if the fath­er re­cog­nises the child, or the par­ent-child re­la­tion­ship is es­tab­lished by court judg­ment but joint par­ent­al re­spons­ib­il­ity was not ordered at the time of the judg­ment, joint par­ent­al re­spons­ib­il­ity is es­tab­lished based on a joint de­clar­a­tion by the par­ents.

² In the de­clar­a­tion, the par­ents con­firm that they:

1.

are pre­pared to ac­cept joint re­spons­ib­il­ity for the child; and

2.

have agreed on res­id­ence and con­tact or on the shar­ing of par­ent­ing du­ties and on the child main­ten­ance con­tri­bu­tion for the child.

³ Be­fore mak­ing the de­clar­a­tion, the par­ents may seek ad­vice from the child pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity.

⁴ If the par­ents make the de­clar­a­tion at the same time as re­cog­nising pa­tern­ity, the de­clar­a­tion is made to the civil re­gis­trar. A sub­sequent de­clar­a­tion must be made to the child pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity at the child's dom­i­cile.

⁵ Un­less and un­til the de­clar­a­tion has been made, the moth­er has sole par­ent­al re­spons­ib­il­ity.