Swiss Civil Code

¹ If a par­ent re­fuses to make a de­clar­a­tion on joint par­ent­al re­spons­ib­il­ity, the oth­er par­ent may re­quest the child pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity at the child's dom­i­cile to in­ter­vene.

² The child pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity shall or­der joint par­ent­al re­spons­ib­il­ity, un­less the moth­er should re­tain sole par­ent­al re­spons­ib­il­ity or sole par­ent­al re­spons­ib­il­ity should be as­signed to the fath­er in or­der to safe­guard the child's best in­terests.

³ At the same time as de­cid­ing on par­ent­al re­spons­ib­il­ity, the child pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity shall reg­u­late any oth­er mat­ters in dis­pute. An ac­tion for pay­ment of the main­ten­ance con­tri­bu­tion may be brought be­fore the com­pet­ent court; in such a case the court also de­cides on par­ent­al re­spons­ib­il­ity and oth­er mat­ters re­lat­ing to the child.³⁶⁹

^3bis In its de­cision on res­id­ence, con­tact and the shar­ing of par­ent­ing du­ties, the child pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity shall take ac­count of the right of the child to main­tain reg­u­lar per­son­al re­la­tion­ships with both par­ents.³⁷⁰

^3ter Where joint par­ent­al re­spons­ib­il­ity is awar­ded, with re­spect to the child’s best in­terests, it shall con­sider the pos­sib­il­ity of the child resid­ing with both par­ents on an al­tern­at­ing basis, if this is re­ques­ted by one of the par­ents or by the child.³⁷¹

⁴ If the moth­er is a minor or sub­ject to a gen­er­al deputy­ship, the child pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity shall as­sign par­ent­al re­spons­ib­il­ity to the fath­er or ap­point a leg­al guard­i­an for the child, de­pend­ing on which meas­ure is more suit­able to safe­guard the child's best in­terests.