SI N° 13 | 2024
El pseudo-concepto de la “Alienación Parental” y su impacto en el mundo en las mujeres y los niños
The pseudo-concept of "Parental Alienation" and its impact on the world on women and children

The pseudo-concept of “Parental Alienation” was coined in 1985 by the American doctor Richard Alan Gardner, author of Parental Alienation Syndrome (PAS), a childhood disorder that, according to him, arises in the context of divorces and child custody disputes.

Now, this SAP, which is not accepted by the international scientific community, is not cataloged in the Classification International Diseases of the World Health Organization, nor is it included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders or endorsed by the American Psychological or Psychiatric Association. Nor is it by the UN, the OAS nor by the committee of experts of the Follow-up Mechanism of the Belém do Pará Convention (MESECVI, 2004, 2022). 

This, in particular, has urged the States Parties to the Convention to carry out investigations to determine the “existence of violence against women and to explicitly prohibit, during said judicial processes, evidence that seek to discredit testimony based on parental alienation syndrome, as recommended in the 'Declaration on Violence against Women, Girls and Adolescents and their Sexual and Reproductive Rights'”.

The use of this pseudoscience also does not comply with the recommendations of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) nor is it validated by international institutions such as the European Parliament (2022), in the extent to which it can be considered as a strategy against victims of domestic violence.

For her part, in the report released in May 2023 at the 53rd Assembly, the United Nations Special Rapporteur On violence against women and girls, its causes and consequences, Reem Alsalem highlights that “In several countries, family courts have tended to view [the] allegations [of physical or sexual abuse] as a deliberate attempt of the mother to manipulate her children to separate them from the father, which can translate into double victimization of the victims of said violence.”