Parental kidnapping | Preventing international abduction

There are important resources available for parents who have complicated marital or post-divorce  situations to help them prevent international parental abductions, stop abductions in progress, locate children who have been abducted or who are wrongfully being retained in another country, bring an abductor to justice, recover children who have been abducted or are wrongfully retained in another country, and help them gain access to children being retained in another country. Needless to say, this will only work where the foreign country involved is not only a signatory to the Hague Convention but is also a country (not Brazil, not Japan, not Mexico, not Honduras, for example) that has a history of honoring the convention rather than trashing it.

One of the best resources is “A Family Resource Guide on International Parental Kidnapping,” Revised January 2007, Report, J. Robert Flores, Administrator, Revised January 2007, from the US Justice Department, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.

Some of the important issues this resource will help parents and their lawyers identify and deal with are these:

1. How do you convince a trial court of the importance of recognizing the risk of international abduction?
2. How can parents avoid the legal complications and unpredictable outcomes associated with recovery efforts in another country?
3. What are the “red flags” or warning signs that your child may be at risk of international parental kidnapping
4. What are the personality profiles of parents who may pose an abduction risk?

The Department of Justice identifies six profiles that are associated with risk of parental abduction. Bringing this to your trial court's attention is one of the first steps in putting a parental abduction prevention order in place.

Access “A Family Resource Guide on International Parental Kidnapping,” Report, J. Robert Flores, Administrator, Revised January 2007, from the US Justice Department, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.

You'll find many other valuable resources on my website http://parental-kidnapping.com. If your child is missing, please contact me to see if I can assist you or your attorney in recovery. I've consulted in many interstate parental kidnappings -- 7 in the past 12 months alone -- and can walk your attorney through the process even if Michigan is not one of the states involved. You can email me jeannemhannah@charter.net or call me at 231-223-7864 or 231-649-2140.

Comments

[Jeanne M. Hannah]

Carlos, you are absolutely correct. Mexico has one of the worst records. I corrected this in the post. Thanks for taking the time to respond to this. Jeanne

[Carlos]

"where the foreign country involved is not only a signatory to the Hague Convention but is also a country (not Brazil, not Japan, not Honduras, for example) that has a history of honoring the convention rather than trashing it."

Why must everyone implicitly give Mexico a pass? Not to imply that you are the only one who has done so or even did it intentionally, but this is something I see happen repeatedly. I'm not sure if it's the soft-bigotry of low expectations or a generally racist disdain for all things Mexican (including children with at least half Mexican decent.) Japan, of course, has never signed the Hague Convention. At least twenty children are taken to Mexico for every one that is taken to Brazil, Japan or Honduras (which nearly lacks a functioning government altogether.) Brazil signed the Convention in 2003, 12 years after Mexico did so in 1991. Brazil also provides excellent, and free, legal representation to victim parents (that their court system is ineffective is a separate issue.)

In a speech last year Ernie Allen said 65% of all children abducted to a Hague country were taken to Mexico. Mexico's been highlighted on every Compliance Report as either noncompliant or demonstrating a pattern of noncompliance since the reports began in 1999 including being deemed fully noncompliant in 2009.

Much is made of Middle-Eastern countries custodial bias for fathers but the fact that Mexican laws mirror that preference for mothers is not considered noteworthy as far as I can tell. In over two years of searching I've yet to find a single case of a child abducted to Mexico by a mother holding Mexican citizenship being returned via extradition or the Hague Convention. That the State Dept. won't publicly highlight this fact doesn't justify the broader legal and journalistic communities apparent ignorance of it. We share a 2000 mile border with Mexico completely lacking in exit controls and they are overwhelming our most active treaty partner but when we discuss the problem countries for international child abduction we focus on Austria, Switzerland, Brazil, Japan, Germany or Honduras.

When I allowed my son to travel to Mexico I did so completely ignorant of the fact that they were the world's leading abductor of American children. I've even seen attorneys, ostensibly experts in family law, giving advice online about how Mexico has "an excellent track record of honoring the Hague Convention." As much as Mexico's noncompliance angers me I find the unwillingness to acknowledge that the problem exists in this country a far more disturbing issue. A problem cannot be prevented until it has been defined.