International Kidnapping

Here's an up-close-and-personal view of international kidnapping in which one parent snatches the child and flees to another country effectively denying access to the other parent (National Post, 12/27/08).  It's illegal in all countries that are signatories to the Hague Convention, but that doesn't always get access for the parent who's been denied it. 

The article has some good information in it and some misinformation.  For example, it tells us that there's only been one case of parental kidnapping in which the parent didn't regain access under the Convention.  Then it goes on to tell us about two.  And neither is about a third case I wrote about on this blog - the case of British professor Martin Boyle.  So their figures are a bit dicey.

More importantly, it doesn't tell us about cases in which the kidnapping parent simply can't be found, like the mother who abducted her son from Maryland and kept him in Mexico for ten years.  That's also been reported on this site.  The Hague Convention procedures obviously can't affect those cases and the figures in the article don't reflect them.  And the article doesn't mention them, so it's misleading that way.

But it has value.

Help, Resources for Dads The National Fathers' Resource Center is a division of Fathers For Equal Rights, Inc. (FER), located in Dallas, Texas, with offices in both Dallas and Ft. Worth. In existence for over three decades, it has services and resources for dads nationwide and is one of the largest and most active fathers' rights organizations in the U.S. www.fathers4kids.org

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