Expectations low as Hague signing approaches
Treaty seen by many as mere window dressing in hunt for international community’s approval COLIN P.A. JONES, The Japan Times, Tuesday, February 21, 2012 Several months ago I made a bet with a friend about how the Hague Convention on international child abduction will be applied after Japan finishes implementing it through domestic legislation. My [...]
Parental abductions go unpunished, Canadian dads say
Canadian police and courts called ineffective in enforcing custody KATHY TOMLINSON – CBC, January 9, 2012 Two Canadian fathers whose children were allegedly abducted by their mothers and taken to European countries say authorities have done little to try to enforce court orders and bring them back. “I’m holding my hands up going, ‘Can somebody [...]
Police stop alleged parental abduction
Mom accused of trying to take son, 7, to Australia IAN HITCHEN – Winnipeg Free Press, December 17, 2011 BRANDON — A western Manitoba woman was arrested in Los Angeles late Thursday night after she allegedly abducted her seven-year-old son and attempted to take him overseas. Brandon Crown attorney Garry Rainnie said quick work by [...]
One-fifth of kids [in Japan] deprived of contact with one parent
Hotline to Nagatacho The Japan Times, Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2011 Dear Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, Minister of Justice Hideo Hiraoka, Minister for Foreign Affairs Koichiro Gemba, Minister of Health, Labor, and Welfare Yoko Komiyama, and the government of Japan, I pose the question: How many children in Japan cannot be with both of their parents [...]
Courts too lenient on parental abductors, lawyer says
KIRK MAKIN— JUSTICE REPORTER, The Globe and Mail, December 12, 2011 The abduction of children by one of their parents is one of the few offences to combine grave consequences for victims with lenient treatment for offenders. In some cases, parental abductors emerge from hiding when their child is fully grown, give themselves up and [...]
Custody fight abroad is a ‘losing battle’, dad says
DAKSHANA BASCARAMURTY, The Globe and Mail, December 12, 2011 Stephen Watkins had spent two and a half years dreaming of the reunion he’d have with his sons, who, along with Mr. Watkins’s estranged wife, went missing from their Toronto home in 2009. But when Mr. Watkins was finally reunited with his boys in late November, [...]
Father waits to hear from daughter in 1993 parental abduction case
LOUISE DICKSON, Victoria Times Colonist, December 4, 2011 VICTORIA — Joe Chisholm has been told that the daughter he has not seen since May 13, 1993, wants to contact him. Counsellors with the Canadian Centre for Child Protection told Chisholm that his daughter, [name withheld], who grew up in Victoria under the assumed identity of [...]
Father’s Christmas miracle: US girl returned
By Mira Oberman (AFP) – Dec 24, 2011 MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin — For the first time since his ex-wife spirited their daughter away to Japan nearly four years ago, a Wisconsin doctor was able to tuck his little girl into bed after a bitter court battle that brought her home just in time for Christmas. “Karina [...]
Few options for left-behind parents even if Hague OK’d
Without retroactive effect, treaty will leave past abductions in limbo MASAMI ITO, The Japan Times, Thursday, December 29, 2011 In July 2003, Paul Toland arrived to an empty home at the U.S. Navy’s family housing facility in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture. Gone were his Japanese wife and baby daughter. What was left was a [...]
Is International Child Abduction a Crime?
A Problem from Rapidly Increasing International Marriages MASAYUKI TANAMURA ?Professor, Faculty of Law, Waseda University The Yomuri Online (Waseda Online) December 9, 2011. A Japanese woman arrested A Japanese woman who had taken her daughter back to Japan during a divorce suit was arrested by United States law enforcement officials when she visited Hawaii in [...]