I have been following the drama of International Parental Child Abduction since I became familiar with the Sean Goldman case back in the fall of 2008. As I have previously mentioned, I was extremely naive and didn't even know if was such a big issue - likely due to the fact that cases are swept under the rug or treated with "secrecy of justice".
Father's day is tomorrow and it's a date Left-Behind Parents know all too painfully well. Especially due to the fact that 75% of the LBPs are men - and, believe me, from what I've seen, the vast majority of these women do not leave the country due to domestic violence.
What about the children? Yes, the children... these innocent creatures that are carried like a suitcase by one of their parents when they decide to do so. They're just pawns in this sick game. They're lied to, alienated, and abused. We're adults, people! Whatever problem we have with our current/former spouses we have to solve without getting the children involved.
As we all know, the instrument to recover children abducted overseas is the Hague Convention on the International Aspects of International Child Abduction. However, not all countries are signatory of the Hague, and others that have signed it "have trouble" enforcing the returns (for the lack of a better word).
That's why Congressman Chris Smith has introduced a bill,
HR 1940, The International Child Abduction Prevention and Return Act of 2011, so this country can have legislation with teeth to enforce the returns of children abducted abroad. We have to call our representatives and ask them to co-sponsor the bill, and inquire the reason - if any - why they refuse to do so. Some representatives think the US should not jeopardize international relations with other nations because of "some children". I'm pretty sure if these Congressman had their children abducted, they'd be singing a different tune.
For those who think the problem is not as bad as they think, that parents can take off with children when they please, and feel sorry for the abducting families, please take a look at the following:
- Testimony of a formerly abducted child, posted in the
Bring Sean Home Foundation Orkut community on June 16, 2011 (click it to enlarge)
Translation:
When I was 3, my father took me away from my American family when we went to Brazil "on vacation". For 16 years, I did not see my mother, sister, aunts, grandmother and grandfather (he passed away in 2002). My father returned to the US but left me in Brazil with my paternal grandparents (who passed when I was already back on the US).
I'll never forgive my father for doing what he did. I came back to my country (US) nine years ago and I don't want to see him or the rest of his family. I'm very traumatized.
People like Bruna and her family do not understand the severity of what they did. I missed 16 years of my life with my family, and I'll never have those years back. My relationship with my family here is not the greatest since we were deprived of being together for so long.
This Grandmother [Sean Goldman's] doesn't have the right to play victim. She's just paying for what she did.
- Blog of a Left-Behind Aunt. She wants to be a voice out there for her brother Carlos and nephew Sage, who was abducted to Mexico. It also provides a perspective on how child abduction plays a devastating effect in not only the LBP and chid(ren)'s lives, but also on the rest of the family
www.justiceforsagebermudez.blogspot.com
On May 24th, I attended a
Congressional Hearing on IPCA. The hearing was over 4 hours long and I couldn't stay for the whole thing. The place was so packed some people got turned away. David Goldman spoke as a former LBP and on behalf of the others with children abroad - 2 panels: Hague Countries and Non-Hague Countries.
After his testimony, David read a
letter to SOS Clinton signed by 80+ parents. Before he started reading the letter, he asked that other LBPs in the room to stand up. Half the room was up, men and women holding pictures of their children. I didn't know what to do. I was invaded with shock, sadness, anger, desperation... you name it. How can you look at those faces and not do anything, not feel anything? That image will never leave my head. That's why I'll never stop.
