Child custody and guardianship

Legal guardian

A legal guardian is a person who has the legal authority to care for the personal and property interests of another person, called a ward. Usually, a person has the status of guardian because the ward is incapable of caring for his or her own interests due to infancy, incapacity, or disability...

 are legal terms which are used to describe the legal and practical relationship between a parent

Parent

A parent is a caretaker of the offspring in their own species. In humans, a parent is of a child . Children can have one or more parents, but they must have two biological parents. Biological parents consist of the male who sired the child and the female who gave birth to the child...

 and his or her child, such as the right of the parent to make decisions for the child, and the parent's duty to care for the child.

Following ratification

Ratification

Ratification is a principal's approval of an act of its agent where the agent lacked authority to legally bind the principal. The term applies to private contract law, international treaties, and constitutionals in federations such as the United States and Canada.- Private law :In contract law, the...

 of the United Nations

United Nations

The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...

 Convention on the Rights of the Child

Convention on the Rights of the Child

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child is a human rights treaty setting out the civil, political, economic, social, health and cultural rights of children...

 in most countries, terms such as "residence

Residence in English family law

Residence is a term used to refer to not always similar concepts in various parts of English law including taxation, immigration, and family law. The remainder of this article deals exclusively with English family law...

" and "contact

Contact (law)

In family law, contact is one of the general terms which denotes the level of contact a parent or other significant person in a child's life can have with that child...

" (known as "visitation" in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

) have superseded the concepts of "custody" and "access".