If there’s anything good that came out of London’s recent riots, a pending law guaranteeing fathers access to their children following separation or divorce may be it.

Christopher Hope reports for The Telegraph:

Ministers intend to rewrite the law in an attempt to ensure that fathers get improved access to their offspring after a marriage breaks down.

Currently, family courts decide to leave children with their mothers in the vast majority of divorce cases.

Campaigners have long complained that without a legal right to see their children, fathers can be excluded, particularly when a split has been acrimonious. By creating the new right for children, ministers hope that judges ruling on custody disputes will ensure more equal access for both parents.

A ministerial working group will be announced on Monday to decide how the Children’s Act 1989 needs to be amended.

According to the Office for National Statistics, one in three children, equivalent to 3.8?million, lives without their father. Ministers are particularly concerned about boys growing up without a strong male influence.

However, there is opposition — “single mothers’ groups” (actually, this is just a euphemism for radical feminists):

Ministers are bracing themselves for a backlash from single mothers’ groups that are concerned about the possibility of aggressive fathers intervening in the lives of their children.

The working group, comprising education ministers Tim Loughton and Sarah Teather, and justice minister Jonathan Djanogly, has been asked to come up with proposals on how the law should be changed within two months.

One nice thing about this article is that fathers’ rights groups – Fathers4Justice in particular – are getting some credit for their efforts.

Campaign group Fathers4Justice claims that every day 200 children lose contact with their fathers because of decisions taken in family courts. Under the plans the 1989 Act could be amended to include a “presumption of shared parenting”, this newspaper has learnt.

It seems that, in Britain at least, MRA does actually work. It has actually been working for some time, but it’s been only in the last couple years that we’ve started to build a more widespread public awareness of these issues, which will make it a lot easier for lobbyists to find support. Finally, some results are emerging, and that’s a positive sign. A victory of sorts.

So let’s give a hand to the men working in the trenches in Britain and elsewhere, and continue to support reform as time and resources allow.