International child abduction

Labour Party

Last night at the European Parliament plenary session in Strasbourg I spoke about the accession of 8 countries to the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction.

The Labour Party will vote along with our colleagues in the Socialists and Democrats and across the chamber in accepting the accession of these countries; however I felt it was important to make a few pertinent points about this accession.

I’m worried that without further EU assessment into the infrastructure and procedures in these countries, both proposed and in place, we risk sending children who have already suffered a huge ordeal back into danger.

When the application of the Hague Convention was a Member State issue, the assessments undertaken allowed us to assess acceding countries in order to ascertain the level of child protection which would be provided. We worry that these vulnerable children will not be adequately protected.  What is a fairly legalistic attitude towards the recognition of other systems will have an effect on the lives of young people who have been abducted.

While the argument has been made by other groups that it is important to have a maximum level of participation in the Hague Convention to ensure that children who have been abducted in cross-border situations are given the maximum care and possibility of being reunited with their families, we wish to underline that the EU also has obligations. It is not sufficient that we simply accept the principle that we return children who have already suffered an ordeal to their state of habitual residence, then simply forget about them. We need to maintain pressure on acceding states to ensure their compliance with the terms of the Convention.

It is also helpful that there is virtual unanimity across the European Parliament on this. We need to ensure that child protection in these situations remains at the forefront, and that we don’t risk running before we can walk.

You can see the full speech here:

One thought on “International child abduction

  1. Wow! What a pity I didn’t see this before I came to Brussels for the workshop on Cross Border Abduction! One of the report authors pointed out to me that the UK is way above everybody else’s statistics. In our view this is due to judges handing children to their abusive parents as a systemic pattern.

    You may be familiar with our petition to Abolish Adoptions without Parental Consent: no 1707/2013. It was presented to PETI on 19 March and 11 November 2014 and affirmed by a Bulgarian mother whose daughter was adopted against her will and her presentation in January 2015:

    https://www.change.org/p/eu-parliament-abolish-adoptions-without-parental-consent

    In its wake I have recently filed an emergency petition on behalf of a Russian mother whose children were taken into care six months ago.

    http://mckenzie-friends.co.uk/2015/03/07/using-the-secrecy-of-ukfamilycourts-to-cover-up-criminal-activities/

    In its support is the petition with nearly 15,000 signatures on https://www.change.org/p/the-rt-hon-theresa-may-mp-return-whistleblowerkids-and-abusesurvivors-to-their-russian-family and the blog with background information: https://whistleblowerkids.wordpress.com/

    What do you think you could do to get the UK Government to adapt to the EU Convention, Fundamental Charter and UN Child Rights?

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