Every minute a child is kidnapped somewhere in the world
 
 

I am an Italian citizen born and raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina. I am currently a permanent resident of Switzerland and I lived more than 7 years in Spain. I am the left-behind father of Tomas (11) and Renata (5), who have been parentally abducted to Argentina four and a half years ago. As of today, I have had no contact whatsoever with my children for 1591 days. I have been fighting against Child Abduction since last year not only for Tomas and Renata but also for all the victim children. I am still in touch with many left-behind parents and Missing Children Organizations around the world. Since I am involved in this kind of matters I heard incredible and horrible stories.

Each child abduction is unique although there is a common pattern of horror, suffering, and powerlessness.

I am in permanent contact with organizations from USA, France, Switzerland, Belgium, England, Ireland, Argentina and Australia. We exchange resources and support, we lobby to try to change the laws and educate the population and we meet on a regular basis. Most of us are volunteers and left-behind parents, financing our activities and trip with our own resources.

I am dismayed and hurt by the fact that no one bothered to respond to our message about the difficulties that one has faced in trying to find and return our children home safely. Many Governments have taken, for the most part, such a lackadaisical attitude toward parental abduction. Over and over, the excuse of foreign sovereignty is used.

This is, in my opinion, one of the most important reasons we need to be organized and vocal. Case by case we were ignorable. We are victims of individual crimes that hurt us and only us. A car theft in my neighborhood gets immediate attention because of the fear that "anyone could be next." That doesn't happen with parental abduction, so we were usually left to holler for help, solo. Only a group of voices (or, in politicians eyes, voters) gets heard by government. We need to unite and explain.

International parental abduction is not the outlandish oddity or "tragic novelty" that it is portrayed on talk shows. This is not a movie-of-the-week to make everybody momentarily raise its hand to its mouth and then go back to watching the football match. We will be in hell until we are reunited with our children, and our lives will be changed forever even if that does happen.

We feel ignored. And I have the same instincts to resent authority that many in our situation do. But legislators don't know how this feels or what to do about it, and those of us who want to help are staving off a mountain of sorrow and depression and aren't in the best situation to be understanding of politicians' shortcomings. We want to be in our child's life again. How normal is that?

Every minute a child is kidnapped somewhere in the world

More and more children are abducted by mothers to latin-american country: Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela, Guatemala, Honduras, Costa-Rica, Colombia, Chile, Perou, Bolivia, Panama, Nicaragua, Jamaïca, Cuba, Porto-Rico, Santo-Domingo, Haïti, Belize, Surinam, Guyana, Paraguay, Uruguay. The majority of abductors to this part of the world are mothers. There are also some fathers in the same way.

Because of "Globalisation" Parental Kidnapping is on the Rise Everywhere

Parental abduction is NOT a "domestic issue" or a "private child custody dispute" as we often hear: IT IS A CRIME AND A HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUE. While many believe these children are perfectly safe because they are with a family member, nothing could be farther from the truth.

My own children have been missing for more than 2 years, without attending school and my son who is mentally handicapped without the indispensable medical cares. I have learned that they have been told that I am dead and that they dont have paternal family.

Studies of Parental Alienation Syndrome (PAS) have established the severity of psychological damage done to abducted children, suddenly separated from a parent. The studies have also shown how susceptible the child is to being systematically alienated by the abductor-parent from the victim-parent. This PAS syndrome is very similar to the "Stockholm syndrome" well known in Europe, when hostages start to identify with their captors. In the case of an abducted child the identification will be the stronger, because of the age of the "hostage" and the childs relationship with the "captor". For fear of losing the abducting parent as well, the child will not only be eager to please, but ready to believe allegations that it has been abandoned by the victim parent. Testimony concerning the Parental Alienation Syndrome has been admitted in courts of law in many states and countries.

Article 13B of the High Convention gives enough room for misinterpretations of "a benefit for the child".

There are a lot of divorce cases done under dramatic conditions where one party is threatening the other and using the children either as a weapon or as a shield. Quite often a parent (mother or father) abducts the children to kill them and suicide. In countries like Argentina, Brazil, Mexico or Colombia where corruption is a common practice and with a high degree of violence, the Justice is inefficient or partial.

Child abductions are difficult and complex when they occur within one country. When they involve different countries, they are even more so.

Most people associate child abduction with faraway countries where laws and customs are very different from ours. But, child abduction within western societies is much more common than supposed. There are no international conventions regulating custody matters. Custody orders made in one country are not necessarily recognized in another. When non-custodial parents abduct their children from the country in which custody has been given (usually heading to their home country), the chances of recovering them through judicial process is almost non-existent.

I would like to emphasize that children abduction is not related to culture, religion, social and status economic status, rich or poor countries. It exists all possible combinations between any country member or not of the United Nations. However we dont have information about abduction from or to the Vatican!

Children born to a dual-national family where the mother is from Spain, Portugal or Latin America, if divorced the mother has more than 95% of chances to obtain the custody, and the "give way" to return to her country of origin to never come back. There is a enormous number of cases of women from Latin America abducting their children from Spain, Portugal and USA, once they have obtained the custody and a "first world" alimentary pension, enabling them to have a comfortable life in their countries.

THE LEFT-BEHIND PARENTS SUFFER THE FRUSTRATION AND ANGUISH OF LOSING CONTACT WITH A BELOVED CHILD, EITHER IN SITUATIONS IN WHICH THE WHEREABOUTS OF THE CHILD ARE UNKNOWN, OR IN SITUATIONS IN WHICH THE WHEREABOUTS ARE KNOWN, BUT ACCESS IS LIMITED OR DENIED ENTIRELY.

THEY HAVE TO DEAL WITH THE SYSTEM WHICH IS A GREAT DEAL OF FRUSTRATION AND THEY ALWAYS END UP FINANCIALLY AND EMOTIONALLY DEVASTATED.

My recommendations are:

International abduction and retention of children should be recognized as a criminal offense in all countries

Encourage countries to join the Hague convention, or enter bilateral agreements regarding parental kidnapping with other countries,

Encourage countries to explore making better use of diplomatic initiatives in such cases ;

Encourage countries to systematically return the children to their habitual country of residence, so that abductors will not be encouraged to seek assistance in their home country.

Abductors should go to jail.

Abductor should receive mental treatment.

Extradition treaties that would allow extradition for parental kidnapping whenever both countries recognize the offense as a crime

Obligation for the countries to address the issue of parental kidnapping in their report to the UN regarding their compliance with the CRC Convention
 
 

I am convinced that assistance and guidance of this Committee would be of great benefit both to governments, law enforcement personnel who must quickly respond these cases as well as to left-behind parents in international abduction cases.