A story published today by the Prague Post reports that with one of the highest divorce rates in Europe, the Czech Republic is home to thousands of fathers who say they have little or no access to their children. The courts, they say, side with mothers in custody disputes in 96 percent of cases. When mothers refuse to allow visitation time, they say, the police and social workers are of no help.

But Czech fathers are beginning to organize a response, albeit a modest one. Miroslav Kapr, a divorced dad heads an organization called the Association for the Protection of Parents' and Children's Rights, bidding for legislation to give fathers and grandparents greater access to their children.

"There's a syndrome of rejected fathers in this country," says Kapr, "a prejudice that children belong to their mothers. So then the mother gets the child, and she gets to decide whether the child can see the father at all."

While the law guarantees fathers minimum visitation rights of two days every two weeks, Kapr and other fathers say that is the maximum a judge ever awards. They say the system does nothing to guarantee those rights if the mother refuses.

"There's one fixed course. It's like a factory," says Karel Miffek, a divorced father of two. "The child always goes to the mother, and mothers tend to view the child as their property. For the courts, it's convenient just to stick to the status quo and side with the mothers, when they should be defending the rights of the child."

So Miffek helped established the Association for Protecting Parents' and Children's Rights four years ago. Along with Kapr, he helps fathers who want to fight for custody and more visitation time.

Under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which Czechoslovakia signed in 1989, the government is obliged to "respect the right of the child who is separated from one or both parents to maintain personal relations and direct contact with both parents on a regular basis, except if it is contrary to the child's best interests."

Last month, Miffek and others picketed the Justice Ministry and the Labor and Social Affairs Ministry to demand reform. But with only 15 protesters, the demonstration drew little attention, and government officials seem bored.

"If that gathering of eight gentlemen is what you mean, well, I can assure you we are not taking any action really," says Vladimir Voracek, press spokesman for the Justice Ministry. "They submitted a petition, and they will get an answer."

Jurisdiction is also a source of controversy. Officials at the Labor and Social Affairs Ministry said that the governmental Association for the Equality of Men and Women should address the issue. The group's chairwoman, Hana Voseckova, acknowledged that fathers often don't have enough access to children but said her group is helpless.

"There is a problem in this area with law enforcement, and we as an association can't really do much about it," she says. "Unfortunately, stereotypes prevail. It will take 10 to 20 years to change this. But at the moment, it is not something that is on our agenda."

Miffek says that a weekend every two weeks, the state's minimum for visitation, is hardly enough for a father to play a real child-raising role. "It's in the interests of children to have both parents active in their life," he says. "We want to be there for them, not just borrow them for a weekend." He says the distance from his own daughters has permanently damaged his relationship with them.

"They've grown aloof," he says. "You know, they have their friends, and I don't even have a chance to meet them. After years of distance, we've grown apart."

Kapr hopes that someday, when his own daughter is grown, that distance can be bridged. "We'll never get back those lost years of childhood. It's the most important time in anyone's life," he says. "But I still hope the damage can be repaired later on. I hope so."

A story published today by the Jerusalem Post reports that the Israel’s Justice Ministry announced yesterday that according to a ruling by Chief Rabbi Yisrael Lau, a woman who refuses to accept a bill of divorce from her husband, and continues to do so after attempts to mollify her fail, can be sent to jail.

Lau, who is also the president of the Supreme Rabbinical Court, recently ruled that coercive steps can be taken against women who refuse to accept a bill of divorce, just as they can be taken against husbands who refuse to give one.

In a letter to rabbis throughout the country, Lau said: "[Torah] likens the woman to a man, and just as restrictions, including incarceration, can be taken against one who refuses to give [his wife] a get (bill of divorce), restrictions, including incarceration, can be taken against a women who has been ordered by the beit din to accept a get and refuses to do so."

Lau ruled on a case in which the Tel Aviv Rabbinical Court determined that a couple should get divorced, and gave permission to the man to marry another woman after his wife refused to accept a get from him. The Tel Aviv district office of the Justice Ministry had given legal advice to a 53-year-old woman with five children who refused to accept a get from her husband, even though they had been living apart for many years.

Last night, Lau reacted to reports that his ruling was a precedent setting decision. He said permission to jail a woman who refuses to accept a get is not something new. Such a law has been in effect for several years, but has not been put into practice, a statement released by his office said.