2013-05-21T14:43:03-04:00 Louise Halford http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/author/index.php?author=louise-halford Copyright 2008, HuffingtonPost.com, Inc. HuffingtonPost Blogger Feed for Louise Halford Good old fashioned elbow grease. tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.2278158 2012-12-11T12:49:29-05:00 2013-02-10T05:12:02-05:00

Louise Halford http://www.huffingtonpost.com/louise-halford/
Thankfully, only a relatively small proportion of the relationships which we have any dealings with feature any rancour.

Those which do can be difficult for all concerned if they involve children, especially so if the respective partners hail from different countries or cultural backgrounds.

They may want to take themselves and their children home to family and familiar surroundings overseas rather than remain in a territory which might have few if any comforts now that their relationship - be it marriage or cohabitation - has come to an end.

Exactly how frequent such circumstances have become has been made plain by the latest set of figures from the Foreign Office which show that cases of parental child abduction have risen by 88 per cent in a little under a decade.

The staggering nature of the increase has been compounded by the results of an accompanying survey which showed that nearly a quarter of Britons are unaware that taking a child overseas without permission is a crime.

The research goes on to highlight that half those questioned believed government can intervene to ensure the swift return of children abducted from the UK.

The truth is often rather more traumatic and long drawn-out.

Together with my colleagues at Pannone, I have dealt with too many cases to recall in which children have been taken beyond the reach of the Hague Convention.

The Convention was introduced in 1980 and allows for children taken to signatory states to be returned to their country of residence while any disputes about their welfare are resolved.

When children are removed to those countries which haven't signed up to the Hague Convention, parents can face sometimes fruitless, lengthy and expensive procedures to bring about the return of children who have been taken from them.

Given that, it may alarm some people to read that Reunite International, a British-based charity specialising in parental child abduction cases, estimated that such non-Hague cases had risen by 206 per cent in the decade to 2011.

I believe that one of the reasons for making the statistics public now is that there appears to be more cases of abduction during various holiday periods throughout the year.

By releasing the information only two weeks before Christmas Day, the Foreign Office is reinforcing a pledge made last year to make people more aware of the issue and, more importantly, the truly devastating consequences for the children concerned.

It is my understanding that departmental officials have also met with parents whose former partners have abducted their children in an effort to put in place measures to help tackle the problem.

One idea might be to warn parents either at the start of a divorce or - more specifically -
at the commencement of proceedings regarding the welfare of the children that they cannot take them abroad without explicit legal permission.

Early, clear intervention of that nature might not prevent all abductions because, unfortunately, parents who are intent on abduction will do all they can to carry it out, regardless of the protocols in place to stop them.

However, it might prevent a proportion of abductions taking place and remove the
the sort of stress, time and cost involved once they happen.]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.1565131 2012-06-02T15:59:37-04:00 2012-08-02T05:12:15-04:00

Louise Halford http://www.huffingtonpost.com/louise-halford/
Things which, not so many years ago, seemed more the stuff of science fiction shows like 'Star Trek' or the hi-tech crystal ball-gazing of 'Tomorrow's World' have become hard - and very sellable - fact.

Within 30 years, the mobile 'phone has been reduced from an expensive, uncommon and rather unreliable object the size of a large house brick to a device which fits in the palm of our hand and allows us to talk, shop, work and photograph wherever we like.

That sense of convenience has been accelerated in the last couple of years by applications such as Skype or Apple's Facetime which allow us not only to speak with friends, family and colleagues wherever they may be but to see them as we do so.

Such programs have been regarded as time and money-savers for businesses. However, they have started to develop real significance for families too.

Partners forced to spend periods of time apart can now keep closer in touch than a telephone had previously allowed. For divorced or separated parents, especially those who don't live with their children after a break-up, video calls mean being able to maintain a better quality of contact.

Most, it seems, do so positively, taking an interest in their children's life, interests and education. Some, however, stand accused of using smartphones and tablet PCs in a manner which generates friction with their former partners.

Over the last six months, I and my colleagues at Pannone have noticed a steady stream of a new type of case, one in which estranged parents are being accused of using mobile video calls to their children as an opportunity to spy on their exes.

It has been claimed that some have been encouraging their children to wander around former partners' homes during video calls on smartphones and tablet computers which they may have been given as Christmas or birthday presents.

As making a call to a mobile or an iPad doesn't mean ringing a home landline, as might have been the case for parental contact in previous generations, it doesn't need the input of both parents. That, it has been suggested, reduces the control parents have over what children are doing and when.

Some residing parents have complained about the time, length or frequency of the calls while others have said that, because these devices are handheld, children are being prompted to walk around their house, showing former partners what's there.

Such behaviour, they say, amounts to snooping and has left them feeling uncomfortable, almost as if their ex has been wandering uninvited around their home.

It is a very modern problem created by very modern technology and one which illustrates how popular the Android, iPhone and BlackBerry have become in the UK. Recent figures (http://www.3g.co.uk/PR/April2012/android-dominating-uk-smartphone-market-while-over-50s-drive-growth.html) suggested that more 52.2 per cent of the British population now own a smartphone.

As such, everyone is eager to find ways in which separated or divorced families can use it to maintain positive relations while tackling difficulties it may pose for children and parents alike.

Certainly, if not handled carefully, efforts by parents to curb what they view as intrusion can, in turn, fuelled complaints by their former partners about contact with children being unfairly limited.

In some of the cases which we have dealt with, compromises have been reached in which limits have been set both on the times, locations and duration of these video calls.

Our best advice would be that while some people believe it's okay to allow children to capitalise on technology's latest great leap forward, it might be as well for parents who no longer live together to agree how a smartphone, laptop or other device might be used before it is bought.

It is far better, in our opinion, for both parents and children to have rules in place at the start than to have unpleasantness added to what might already be strained family relations.]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.1544745 2012-05-27T19:00:00-04:00 2012-07-27T05:12:05-04:00

Louise Halford http://www.huffingtonpost.com/louise-halford/
Imagine the scale of upset, then, given the suggestion by one charity that more than 130,000 children go missing in the UK each year. The figures quoted by Parents and Abducted Children
Together (PACT) are staggering, beyond many people's comprehension.

Let me put it another way. According to the charity's founder and chief executive, Lady Catherine Meyer, a number of children equivalent to the entire populations of Preston or St Albans go missing every 12 months.

Lady Catherine's comments coincide with a point in the year on which focus on the topic is arguably at its greatest. May the 25th was originally designated Missing Children's Day in the United States in 1983 by the then President, Ronald Reagan. The date and the cause have since become fixtures on calendars around the world.

Last week, a specialist police child protection agency, the Child Exploitation and Online Protection centre (CEOP), relaunched a website (www.missingkids.co.uk) to circulate up-to-date photographs of and information about youngsters who have been missing for days, months or years.

The Home Secretary, Theresa May, also held a reception at Downing Street to draw attention and awareness to combined efforts to tackle the problem.

The statistics and the sadness which they cannot hope to convey in full seem bewildering. However, might they not represent one reason why measures might not be as effective as possible?

The reason is that no-one knows exactly how grave the problem really is. There is no central repository for data related to missing children. No-one can ascertain whether a child has run away from home or been abducted. If it is the latter, it's often difficult to establish whether that child has been taken by a parent or by a stranger.

Both, of course, are crimes but, say experts, different police forces categorise cases in different ways. Some do not apparently distinguish between abduction of a child or an adult.

When a child is abducted by a parent, the cases are not always immediately brought before the courts. Those parental cases which are recorded, though, make clear that the problem is significant.

Earlier this year, the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) published figures on those children abducted and taken overseas by their parents.

It concluded that there had been a 10% rise year-on-year in incidents involving British children being taken by a parent to a country which has not signed the 1980 Hague Convention on international parental child abduction.

But ministers admitted that the actual incidence of the problem is likely to be far higher, as many such abductions never make it as far as the courts, politicians or law enforcement.

Trying to make progress in solving parental abductions is delicate enough without the lack of absolute clarity. The sort of parents whom I and my colleagues at Pannone have had to deal with over the years appreciate but generally discount the broader picture. Their principal concern is getting their own child back.

It is not, of course, a problem afflicting one family or one country. Whilst bodies like PACT, Reunite, the Ministry of Justice and the Interational Family Justice Office all do their bit to unpick difficulties involving British citizens, organisations such as the Hague Conference on Private International Law are at the forefront of wider efforts to create a simple framework for ensuring that the interests of the child are best provided for.

PACT is launching an appeal to find the money needed to pull together the various strands of information from the various interested agencies which could illustrate exactly how much and what type of difficulties exist. Such a step would provide a solid foundation from which to determine a coherent, concerted approach.

As a practitioner who has dealt with cases of parental abduction featuring almost every continent on the globe, any attempt to successfully tackle what the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, described as a "painful scourge" has my endorsement.]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.1399990 2012-04-03T12:18:46-04:00 2012-06-03T05:12:01-04:00

Louise Halford http://www.huffingtonpost.com/louise-halford/
Even when there are no children involved, the process of unpicking home life can sometimes be complex and heartbreaking.

However, the issues presented by determining which parent a child should live with as well as the manner and frequency of the other parent's contact with their sons or daughters have for many years had the capacity to add tensions to already fraught domestic circumstances.

A particular trend in recent years has further complicated things. The increasing ease with which people can move abroad to live and work has led to a rise in relationships between individuals of different nationalities.

Economic migration has benefited many both in terms of improving their careers and their understanding of foreign cultures but when the partnerships it helps foster fall apart, the consequences can be extremely distressing for parents and children alike.

Some mothers or fathers who disagree with their former partners choose not to involve the courts but take the law into their own hands. Unfortunately, that all too often means taking their children out of the country where they had been living. In most countries, to do so, is a criminal offence.

These situations have become especially acute in Europe. Research released last year (http://www.hcch.net/index_en.php?act=progress.listing&cat=7) concluded that of more than 2,000 cases handled worldwide during 2008 under the 1980 Hague Convention on international parental child abduction to help handle the return of children taken by parents, half featured European countries.

Even more startling was that 700 of those instances revolved around children who had been taken between two European countries.

That the problem is growing has been made clear by one of the UK's most senior Family judges. Lord Justice Thorpe is head of International Family Justice (IFJ) for England and Wales, a London-based help desk for UK lawyers involved in international abductions.

He believes that the tendency for what he described as "dangerous parents" to flee with their children during custody disputes was now "all too common".

Lord Justice Thorpe also identified the number of cases involving Eastern Europe.

His experiences mirror the details contained within many of the current case files sat on my desk and those of my colleagues. Academic research has shown that, in 2003, Poland accounted for just one per cent of parental child abductions between Poland and the UK. Within five years, that figure had increased to 13 per cent.

While that pattern reflects the countries with which Britain has arguably seen the greatest exchange of people during the last decade, many parental child abductions - regardless of territory - feature another theme.

Most of the parents involved claim that they simply didn't know taking a child abroad without the legal consent of their former partner amounted to a crime.

It's a point which the IFJ and other bodies engaged in trying to resolve such matters, including the charity Reunite, know only too well.

The Government too is also anxious to get to grips with parental child abduction. Only last year, the Foreign Office (www.fco.gov.uk/en/news/latest-news/?view=News&id=622876482) revealed that the number of children taken to countries which had not signed the Hague Convention - and, therefore, did not have mechanisms in place to handle the return of abducted children - had risen by 10 per cent year-on-year.

Only by increasing awareness of how parental disputes can be resolved before abductions take place and by stiffening the commitment of more countries to tackle what the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, has described as a "painful scourge" (www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2011/05/162351.htm) can the trauma suffered by the children taken and the parents who are left behind be reduced.
]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2011:/theblog//3.924112 2011-08-12T19:00:00-04:00 2011-10-12T05:12:01-04:00

Louise Halford http://www.huffingtonpost.com/louise-halford/
While the number of cases reported has risen by 10 per cent year-on-year, even UK ministers admit that the actual incidence of the problem is likely to be far higher, as many such abductions never make it as far as the courts, politicians or law enforcement.

It is a sadly depressing scenario for myself and my colleagues, having handled lots of cases of this nature in recent years. Even though relatively few instances are considered worthy of coverage by the media, the distress felt by parents and children is all too frequent.

Of course, the problem of abduction by parents is not something which Britain is alone in having to contend with. In a statement marking National Missing Children's Day in late May, the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, described it as a "painful scourge" and vowed to maintain the pressure on other governments to sign up to the Hague Convention.

The statistics released by her British counterparts demonstrate how widespread and global the issue had become. Foreign Office Minister Jeremy Browne disclosed that, in the last 12 months, the authorities in London had handled cases featuring 97 different countries which had yet to become Hague signatories, ranging from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe.

However, it's not only so-called 'undeveloped' countries which present a problem for parents hoping to secure their children's return. France is among those nations which featured in a report published by the State Department in April for failing to enforce an order compelling the return of a child under the terms of the Hague Convention. Similar orders were made in the cases of 115 children taken from the UK to US and vice versa during 2009 alone.

Japan, meanwhile, is the only one of the G-7 group of leading industrialised countries not to have yet signed up to Hague, even though it has indicated that it may be about to do so following persistent pressure from the US and UK governments.

The Hague Convention may not be perfect but it offers a framework for the return of children to the countries from which they were abducted. Even though there are limited defences against an order to repatriate an abducted child, the provisions of Hague can take some time to effect. However, the parents and children involved often find that better than the seemingly interminable search for answers in countries which haven't signed up to the Convention.

Apart from the heartbreak, there is one other constant associated with cases of parental child abduction. Many tend to occur during school holidays, when it might not be unusual for separated or divorced parents to take children overseas. In the experience of many clients with whom I've worked, that makes Summer a time for trepidation and tension, anxiously waiting for children to return home safely from such trips.

Prevention, of course, is easier than resolution. However, even in those relationships which have witnessed difficulties and in which there might be suspicions of abduction, it is not that easy to absolutely prevent. Parents can be placed on so-called 'watch lists' to stop them taking children to non-Hague countries. To do so, though, requires evidence of an imminent abduction risk. Such proof is not necessarily always that easy to come by.

Such cases arise because other elements of a relationship between former spouses or partners has broken down - quite often because of simple misunderstandings - and individuals wrongly decide to use children in order to apply added pressure. Such a step is completely wrong but illustrates how mediation and simple, clear advice could potentially take the heat out of situations which can lead to lives being changed and families torn apart.

The frequency of parental child abduction reflects something else too. People arguably move more freely between countries than they ever have before, increasing the possibility of their having relationships with people of different nationalities and from different cultures.
That pattern is unlikely to change, so I and my colleagues around the globe who spend our days trying to unpick such delicate and complex cases are likely to continuing to do so for some time to come.]]>