A June 17, 2009 Op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal accuses Brazil of helping to kidnap American children. Former assistant secretary of state for Inter-American Affairs (1989-93) Bernard Aronson wrote in “Brazil helps kidnap American children”: “In the coming weeks, Brazil will define itself to the United States and to the wider international community by how it treats a 9-year-old boy.”
On September 24, 2008, I blogged about Sean Goldman, who was born and raised in Red Bank, N.J. Sean’s father, David Goldman, is an American father. His former wife was born in Brazil. Almost five years ago to the date, Sean’s mother flew to Brazil with him. She said it was a two-week vacation. Once there, however, she divorced David Goldman and re-married. Her new husband belongs to a powerful family of prominent Brazilian lawyers. Sean’s mother died tragically in childbirth one year ago, and her Brazilian family has used its powerful connections to prevent Sean's return to his biological father.
February 2009 Visit with Sean. David Goldman was allowed to see his son for a brief time in February 2009. This was the first visit in over four years. You can view an emotional interview with Meredith Viera (NBC) here.
May 2009. Order of Return. Last month, a Brazilian federal judge ordered Sean's immediate return to his father. David Goldman flew to Rio de Janeiro for the ruling. The American Bar Associations’ Family Law Listserv cheered this result. Now, however, the judge’s return order has been stayed by a higher federal court judge. It appears that Sean’s return could be prevented for years by a lengthy (and costly) judicial appeals process.
Heartbreaking developments. It was reported today that Sean, who is nine years old, was interviewed by a psychologist and said that he does not want to return home to New Jersey and his father, David Goldman. You may read a translated version of the interview here.
Under normal circumstances, Sean’s custody would have been resolved in the state and county where he had resided with both parents in the United States. Both the U.S. and Brazil are signatories to the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction [“Hague Convention”]. This treaty is supposed to ensure that custody battles are waged in the country of the child’s his “habitual residence.” It is intended to block a parent from forum-shopping—choosing a more favorable court venue in another country to contest for custody. The treaty compels the country to which the child or children have been taken to return them within six weeks.
Brazil's appalling record of non-compliance. Sad to say, even though the U.S. has regularly complied with the treaty and returned abducted Brazilian children, Brazil has never returned any of the 66 American children abducted from the U.S. to Brazil. Brazil has repeatedly been cited by the U.S. State Department for violating its treaty obligations. See my Blog article of last week about international parental kidnapping and the cited April 2008 report by the State Department’s Office of Children's Issues "Report on Compliance with Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Parental Abduction Convention." Honduras is the only country other than Brazil with a worse record of non-compliance.
Needless to say, Brazil’s intransigence on the issue of return of kidnapped children puts a strain on U.S. / Brazilian relations. Brazil is the fifth most populous country in the world. It is increasingly a respected global leader in economics, energy, peace-keeping and arms control. However, Brazil’s continuing dereliction of its responsibilities under the Hague Convention should not be condoned.
We need to stand up and say: “Let Sean Goldman go home.”
You may read Mr. Aronson’s Op-ed piece here. “Brazil helps kidnap American children”
Visit http://bringseanhome.org for more information.
My earlier Blog article about countries that are non-compliant or demonstrating patterns of non-compliance with the Hague Convention may be reviewed here.
The U.S. Department of State's Children’s Issues Office 2008 memo about non-compliance may be accessed here.
Signatory countries to the Hague Convention are found here.
See also, my parental kidnapping web site here.
How much does it cost to buy a psychological evaluation in Brazil anyway? Etiher way, I'm sure you get a discount if you're the largest family law firm in the country with an uncle that served on the Supreme Court and family relations with the President. It should be said that psychologists in Brazil are not held to any ethical standards. They are free to give any testimony they want without fearing lawsuits or losing their license. We have many ethical problems with psychological evaluations in US custody proceedings even with those safeguards in place. If you read the interview in which Sean "says he wants to stay" you will see he was asked a series of leading questions designed to produce the subsequently obtained results. It also bears mentioning that when court appointed psychologists posed this same question (where did he want to live) to Sean his answer was basically "whatever". Court appointed psychologists also stated that they saw a concerted effort to alienate Sean from his father by, among other things, telling him that his father had abandoned him and didn't love him. How can we expect Sean to answer such questions sincerely when his abductors are watching him and have been doing everything in their power to poison him against his father?
Posted by: carlos | 06/19/2009 at 01:09 PM
Carlos,
Thank you for posting your comment, and thank you for leading me to the transcript. It is very important that people read this transcript for what it is . . . and see the way in which Sean is being isolated from David Goldman and led in his thoughts and words.
When I read the transcript, I did not see any compelling statements by Sean that would make me believe that his objection to return has much basis in reasonable preference, other than, of course, the Brazilian family is the only one he remembers / knows. JMH
Posted by: Jeanne M Hannah | 06/19/2009 at 01:53 PM
I just believe it is kinda difficult for someone who does not live in the contry he is writing about to be able to make such assumptions. It would be fair if the both parts would concentrate on the process, and stop atacking each other. That would also be for the greater well-being of the child.
Posted by: Virgínia Nogueira Garcia | 07/03/2009 at 05:11 PM
Ms. Garcia, thank you for your comment. Let's not make assumptions. Let's just follow the rule of law. Brazil's law says that if a parent passes away, the other parent is entitled to have custody immediately and that parent's rights are superior to any third party. Lins e Silva is a third party. He has no parental rights. Sean has the right to know and live with his biological father. Period. Jeanne M Hannah
Posted by: Jeanne M Hannah | 07/08/2009 at 02:00 PM
what if goldman is not as nice as he appears lol what if that woman was abused and ran to brasil for that reason ....and what if she said on her death bed not to let the child be raised in america for these reasons ...ever thought about that ...goldman was a model ...and that brasilien woman high society before she even married that lawyer ...what if brasil is way better in livestyle if you in the uppercrust that america ...what is that boy going to do here ..flip burgers and have no health insurance or become a right wing fundamental christian ...lol please quit acting like america is the place to be its not
Posted by: maria | 12/21/2009 at 03:15 PM
Maria, this is not about America vs Brazil. This is not about wealthy and politically powerful people being able to use money and contacts to violate a treaty Brazil signed. This is about a child being reunited with his biological father after the tragic death of his mother.
With your logic, if I couldn't have a child and wanted one, I could just go down to the local supermarket and grab one, hide it, and refuse to return it when (if) its parents ever found me and the child. I could refuse to return it, claiming I could give it a better life. That is madness. That is kidnapping, plain and simple. For more about this, see http://tinyurl.com/ygguuto Jeanne M. Hannah
Posted by: Jeanne M Hannah | 12/21/2009 at 04:16 PM