General legal information furnished as a service of Fort Lauderdale / West Palm Beach family law attorney Janet Langjahr
A father has not seen his son for more than a year.
The boy’s mother took the boy on a vacation to India.
And never returned.
India is not a party to the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. And India does not view child abduction as a crime.
As a result, India law enforcement reportedly will not act in cases such as this father’s.
As his last resort, the father has sought the aid of India’s apex child’s rights council because, he argues, his son has been denied contact with his father. He has also contacted the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights.
The boy in this case is a US citizen, and lived in the US for years prior to his abduction. Even under Indian law, his case should be heard in the US.
But …
Read more in this Telegraph - Calcutta article: NRI dads fight for ‘abducted’ children.
French-Israeli father. Turkish mother.
Child had triple citizenship, but was born and raised in Israel.
Mother and child depart for Turkey to spend a holiday with Mother’s parents in 2004.
And stay there. Permanently.
An Israeli court promptly orders the return of the child to Israel under the Hague Convention in the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. Both Turkey and Israel are parties to the Hague Convention.
The Turkish courts agreed with the Israeli courts and upheld consistent orders through two levels of appeals.
The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg also agreed with the Israeli courts.
But the little girl remains in Turkey.
For months, the father had no contact with his child.
Then, he was allowed biweekly visits for a time.
But the little girl remains in Turkey.
This where both involved countries are members of the Hague Convention.
Read more in this Turkish Today’s Zaman article: [FAMILY TRAGEDY] From Tel Aviv to İstanbul: One man’s search for his daughter.
Like everyone else, Americans tend to see parental abduction from the American’s point of view. But parental abduction goes on everywhere.
As in the US, parental abduction is occurring more and more frequently in the UK. A ninety-three percent increase since 1995. A twenty-two percent increase in the first half of 2007 over the first half of 2006.
Cheap travel. Global economies and workforces. International “love connections”. Immigrant labor / workers.
Interestingly, the highest rate of abduction and return is reportedly between the UK country of Ireland and the US, which have their own pact together.
The UK is reputedly good about returning children to their place of habitual residence - with some noteworthy exceptions.
One interesting difference from the US experience is the increasing frequency with which UK couples both opt to relocate to other countries while the family is intact. But after the couple breaks up, one of them often wishes to return home - with their children.
(US abductions are more likely to unfold when the non-American parent takes the children on vacation to visit non-American relatives.)
The Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, to which both the US and the UK are parties, specifies a procedure for seeking return of children to their place of habitual residence.
But forty percent of the parental abduction cases in the UK involve countries that are not parties to the Hague Convention. But some of those nations are parties to private pacts with the UK.
The situation is reportedly generally improving in the UK, but Germany reputedly remains a country that doesn’t play by international rules. Left-behind parents in the UK band together in an organization called Parents and Children Together or PACT, which fights abduction and aids law enforcement.
French mother and British father and two boys lived in England near London.
Mom and Dad divorced. Mom got custody of the eleven and twelve year old boys.
Although the boys didn’t speak any French, Mom decided to move them all to France.
Boys not happy. Boys complained to Mom.
Boys go on summer vacation to England for visitation with Dad.
Boys announce they will not return to Mom in France.
Mom brings return proceeding under the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction.
UK Court rules that the boys were quite firm in their strong objections to living in France, making for a “very exceptional” situation that warranted allowing them to remain in England without any ruling from a French court.
The Mother’s argument that the boys were habitually resident in France within the meaning of the Hague Convention and therefore France had jurisdiction to determine custody was all but ignored.
The British Court prohibited the Mother from appealing it’s ruling.
One reason the boys gave for wanting to remain in England was that they “would not have as much homework”.
What better basis for a child custody ruling?
Read more in this London Daily Mail article: Two boys take mother to court because they don’t want to live in France.
An Australian mother consented to her two little girls, eight and nine, taking a summer vacation trip to the US with her ex-husband last June.
She has not seen them since. And has only been able to speak to them on the phone a few times in all those months.
The children’s father reportedly initially suggested that the girls’ stepfather had molested the older girl. But that allegation was withdrawn.
Only the children still are not home with their mother.
But, thanks to the internet, the mother has finally tracked the girls and their father down. Now she will at least be able to press an application for return of the girls under the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction.
The mother has learned that getting children returned under the Hague Convention, even if ultimately successful, is a frustratingly slow and expensive process - particularly if you don’t yet know where your children are.
This mother hopes to warn other mothers not to consent to overseas travel by their children with the other parent.
Of course, that strategy won’t protect a parent if the Court will or has already granted permission for the overseas travel - as is fairly common today …
Read more in this Mackay [Australia] Daily Mercury article: Mother fights to get her daughters back.
A mother and grandmother allegedly abducted two little girls from Texas to Ireland in violation of the final judgment of divorce of the mother from the father.
The father had to hire a private investigator who, after several months, tracked them down. To secure return of the girls, the father commenced a return proceeding under the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction.
For purposes of the proceeding, the little girls, who had not seen their father in over a year, were briefly interviewed together by a psychologist. The psychologist opined that the children disliked everything about living in the United States.
Their father finally had a short visit with the girls during the proceedings in Ireland, during which he alleged that they were extremely hostile toward him.
Under the Hague Convention, children are normally ordered to be returned to their place of habitual residence. But, as with any rule, there are exceptions.
When more than a year has elapsed, the Court may decline to order the return of children if it finds that the children are “well settled” in their new location.
And that is precisely what the Court did in this case.
The father contends that the mother alienated the children from him, that is, willfully and methodically campaigned to turn his children against him. But, he insists, the Irish courts don’t “believe” in parental alienation. And, hence, the outcome in Ireland.
The article has an interesting discussion about parental alienation, aptly characterizing it as a form of child abuse, and suggesting that children are extremely and quickly susceptible to it.
The article is one-sided, written from the standpoint that this was a particularly severe case of alienation by the mother. And much of what is reported in the article appears to support that conclusion.
It really should be noted, however, that early in the article it is glossed over that the Court ordered that exchanges of the children for purposes of visitation were supposed to take place at a police station.
That is not where exchanges take place in the typical divorce / separation. Normally, police station exchanges are reserved for cases where there is a history of domestic violence.
So the case in question may not be as cut and dried as it may appear at first glance.
Either way, the father has not given up. Since the removal in this case was in violation of court order, Texas law enforcement can charge the mother, among other things, with custodial interference, a felony for which the mother may be extradited back to Texas.
Read more in this Plano Courier Star article: Kidnapped girls found but not returned home.
Fifty-five children of American / Indian unions have gone missing in India.
That is why the US is asking India to join the many other countries tht have joined the Hauge Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction.
If India did sign on, it would expedite case resolutions and tend to “assign” cases to the proper jurisdiction. It would also make India a less attractive haven for kidnappers.
Read more in this The Times of India article: US wants India to sign treaty on child abduction.
Sadly, child snatching is a fact of modern life. Even in Tupelo, Mississippi.
A local birth mother recovered her baby from adoptive parents-to-be. Custody disputes between parents. Fights between a parent and extended family members.
Then there are the abductions to another country.
With 200 cases of parental child abduction per year, the problem is epidemic.
And all of the above happens despite child custody jurisdictional acts enacted throughout the US and intended to, among other things, deter abductions.
The left-behind parent often feels frustration, however, because, in many instances of reported “kidnapping”, law enforcement is powerless to do anything - because it isn’t kidnapping in the eyes of the law, just in the eyes of the left-behind parent.
Read more in this Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal article: Kidnapping - Why do people steal their own children?.
A Pakistani court has ordered Pakistani police to locate a 7 year old French-Pakistani boy and produce him in court.
The little boy’s mother, a French national, brought a habeas corpus action in Pakistan to regain physical custody of the child.
The boy’s parents divorced in France and entered a written custody agreement there which was adopted in a French divorce decree.
The mother alleged that the father, without her permission, removed the boy from France to his native country, Pakistan, in violation of their agreement.
Pakistan is not a party to the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction and, therefore, was not required to produce and return the boy to his mother in France under international law.
However, the Pakistani court’s order indicates that it was at least considering enforcing the agreement adopted in the French divorce decree.
Read more in this [Pakistan] Daily Times article: Police told to find French-Pakistani boy in 7 days.
Ireland has the dubious distinction of emerging as a popular destination for parental child abductors all over.
The number of parental child abduction cases there has risen dramatically in recent years.
Despite entering the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, which requires return of children to their place of “habitual residence“, Ireland often doesn’t.
For example, last year, the Irish high court ordered return in only about half of the cases before it.
While 2,000 kids were involved in Hague Convention cases in the last 15 years, last year alone the figure was 160.
Statistics show that twice as many children are abducted into Ireland as out of Ireland.
Read more in this Irish Independent article: Ireland a haven for love-tug abductors.
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