Thank you for taking the time to respond to this survey which will be open for just 1 month from April-May 2024. The aim is to find out more about what happens after children return under the Hague Abduction Convention 1980 and to produce a report which will be published and submitted to the HCCH Forum on Domestic Abuse and the Hague Convention in June 2024. Results of the survey and the report will be available on the GlobalARRK and FiLiA Hague Mothers websites.
All answers are anonymous and confidential, please see our privacy policy here: https://www.globalarrk.org/globalarrk-privacy-policy/
We will only report a summary of all parents’ responses without identifying any individual parent. We know that for many people the Hague Convention process can be a very upsetting and emotional one and remembering details of the event can be re-traumatising. If you would like a supportive phone call after completing the survey GlobalARRK are here for you, do reach out on: info@globalarrk.orgIf you’d like more information or to give feedback about this survey please contact FiLiA’s Hague Mothers Project at hague@filia.org.uk or GlobalARRK at info@globalarrk.org.
Category: Domestic Violence
Coercive control is insidious and costing lives. What’s being done to combat it? | ABC News – YouTube
Nicole Lee: Survivor and advocate for ending violence against women with disabilities
As WHO releases a policy brief on violence against women with disability, we interviewed Nicole Lee, a survivor of intimate partner violence and advocate for violence prevention and response. After suffering a decade of abuse perpetrated by her former husband and carer, Nicole now uses her experience to advocate for the rights of others – especially those who may otherwise lack a voice.
Source: Nicole Lee: Survivor and advocate for ending violence against women with disabilities
Attorney Calls Out Judge for “Boys Club” Ruling: Now She’s Facing Suspension | Women’s Coalition
An attorney representing a mother in a Family Court case has the audacity to call the judge out for his “boys’ club” ruling switching custody to the abusive father.
Now the Old Boys are coming after her.
Charlotte Proudman is facing suspension of her license to practice law and, meanwhile, the Boys have been trolling her despicably on social media with misogynistic slurs.
The funny part? The judge is actually a member of a literal Boys Only club! And this club happens to boast as members most of the male judges and powerful Old Boys in the UK.
Charlotte is perhaps the most well-known attorney in the UK for representing mothers in custody cases. Seeing up front and center how mothers are systematically discriminated against and oppressed has caused her to be a long-time critic of the Family Court system.
The last straw for the Old Boys with Charlotte (or perhaps the opportunity they were waiting for?) was when she had the temerity to post a 14-tweet thread about a case she had just lost. In it she referred to Judge Jonathan Cohen’s ruling, which gave the abusive father custody, as having “echoes of the boys’ club”.
I lost the case. I do not accept the judge’s reasoning. This judgment has echoes of the “boys’ club” which still exists among men in powerful positions.
Soon after she tweeted this thread, the Bar, also infested with Old Boys, initiated disciplinary proceedings with 5 charges against her.
Not surprisingly, another Old Boy was assigned to hear Charlotte’s disciplinary proceeding: Judge Philip Havers. Amusingly, he is a member of the same, literal Old Boys club! Charlotte requested his recusal and he recently agreed, perhaps because of the publicity her case is getting.
Charlotte was verbally abused in tweets posted by a ton of lawyers. They’ve branded her a cunt, whore, narcissist, dreadful, and an idiot. Charlotte has reported more than 50 lawyers for this abuse and asked the Bar to take action. She says this onslaught has seriously affected her well-being. She is now fearful and has to work with colleagues who’ve been allowed to verbally attack her.
But the Bar minimized the Boys’ attacks on her as just “unpleasant and inflammatory”. They refuse to take action because the messages supposedly do not meet the threshold for regulatory action.
There is a long history of Old Boys retaliating against attorneys who represent mothers well.
Source: (18) Attorney Calls Out Judge for “Boys Club” Ruling: Now She’s Facing Suspension
Gender inequality ‘shrinks women’s brains’
Gender inequality may shrink women’s brains, new research suggests.
A global study by Oxford University which looked at brain scans of more than 7,800 people found significant brain thinning in women living in countries with fewer female rights and male-dominated cultural norms.
In countries where there was greater gender inequality, such as India, Turkey and Brazil, the thickness in the grey matter of the right hemisphere of women’s brains was between three to five per cent thinner than men’s.
However, in Scandinavian countries such as Sweden and Finland, there was no significant difference between the sexes, with women showing greater volume than men in some areas.
Even in Britain, researchers found around 0.5 per cent thinning in the right hemisphere of the brain in women which they say could be attributed to gender inequality.
Women living in societies with high levels of gender inequality experience greater adversity, and this could negatively impact their brain development.
University of Oxford and Associate Professor in the Pontificia Universidad Católica in Chile, said: “Our analysis suggests some sex differences in brain structure are associated with the adverse social environment under which many women live.
“These changes were particularly located in brain regions involved in the control of emotions and that are also affected in stress-related disorders such as depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.
“We, therefore, think that what we are seeing is the effect of chronic stress in women’s brains in gender-unequal environments. Stress affects neurons’ connections, which we would then see as thinning of the grey matter cortex in MRI studies.
“However other mechanisms could also be involved, such as the effect of reduced opportunities including education in women’s brains, leading to lower development of connections.”
Gender inequality can take many forms, including women being prevented from getting an education, being forced into child marriage or suffering gender-based violence.
(Full Version) SR Reem AlSalem Calls for new Optional Protocol to CEDAW – YouTube
Rapporteur of the 1980 Hague Convention proposes “reinterpreting” the treaty to take gender-based violence into account
Being the first female rapporteur of an HCCH convention was a milestone, although perhaps a minor detail in her career. “Thank you for remembering me,” Pérez-Vera began on the subject. That’s because her name resonates rather due to other feats, for which she is actually used to talking to the press.
Now, for example, Pérez-Vera observes how the Hague Convention which she helped draft fails to protect children if it does not take into account the violence suffered by mothers.
In more than half of the world, year after year, nearly 2,000 migrant women are accused of abducting their own children. This is a global phenomenon from the 21st century, as la diaria has previously reported, with stories of binational families trapped between the 1980 Hague Convention and a human rights limbo.
Foreign mothers like Maria make up 75% of international child abduction cases. That’s more than triple the rate of male parents, who account for 23%, according to the fifth and latest HCCH data. The gender gap has triggered warnings of biases and risks in the Hague Convention’s applicability.
From the United Nations, for example, three rapporteurs have denounced that the 1980 treaty currently violates women and children victims of domestic violence, forcing them to live with their abusers and contravening fundamental human rights obligations to be protected by its state parties. The situation has been deemed “inadmissible” in a joint letter sent to the HCCH in 2023.
Ninety-four per cent of abducting mothers are primary caregivers with guardianship of their children. The treaty’s authors did not foresee the current landscape, au contraire of when its text was conceived, Pérez-Vera stressed.
I believe that the fundamental element of change that was not taken into account was gender-based violence – it certainly existed but had not been made evident. We had not been aware that it was a phenomenon that was going to have such an impact on the lives of women and minors.
Affordable housing for trans women to be built in Darlinghurst
Sydney’s first dedicated affordable housing project for transgender women is set to be built in Darlinghurst, in Sydney’s inner-city.
“I am proud the City of Sydney is helping to provide affordable housing to trans women, as part of a sale of surplus residential property,” Sydney Lord Mayor, Clover Moore wrote on Instagram. “Trans women are some of the most vulnerable people in our society, and often face rejection and isolation from their families of origin and the broader community.”
In May of last year, NSW Premier Chris Minns tasked government agencies with identifying surplus land and selling them to organisations working to provide housing for those in need. This excess land scheme was part of his attempt at improving housing supply in the state.
Homelessness for all women, particularly older women, in New South Wales is a massive issue. Last year’s census delivered shocking statistics showing a 48 per cover rise in homelessness for women, with a massive 78 per cent rise for women aged 65 to 74.
Domestic and family violence is one of the main drivers of homelessness, with the latest data from Homelessness NSW showing that, in 2020 and 2021, only 3 per cent of women fleeing violence received the long term housing they needed.
Homelessness NSW Trina Jones has told Women’s Agenda that the state “is the second lowest funded service system in the country and has the second highest rate of homelessness.”
This is “because they physically do not have enough people and resources to help the volume of people who need support,” she said.
Source: Affordable housing for trans women to be built in Darlinghurst
Join us for the launch of ‘Sister in Law’ | UK
In Sister in Law, Harriet tells the shocking stories of some of those who have come to her for assistance and shines a feminist light on the landscape of arcane laws and byzantine systems, skewed towards male behaviour and responses, through which she has steered them.
Harriet has been at the forefront of some historic and ground-breaking legal victories. Frequently working with women who have survived male violence or abuse, sometimes with the bereaved families of those who did not survive, her work has led her to challenge the police, CPS, government departments and the prison and immigration detention system.
WA First Nations child removal complaint filed in H… | NIT
Western Australia has become the second state to be subject to an Australian Human Rights Commission complaint for the discriminatory removal of First Nations children from their families.
n one case, Lisa* was allegedly removed from her family by Communities at age seven and taken 600 km from her home. She was placed in ten different foster homes, suffering sexual and physical abuse, all of which was allegedly reported to Communities who did not follow up the complaints.
In another case, Heather*, had her children removed by Communities, despite suffering abuse at the hands of her partner and father of her kids. They were placed with a non-Indigenous family, allegedly disconnected from their family, culture and community. When she became pregnant again, Communities removed her child shortly after birth.
Both women continue to suffer from long-term trauma and depression as a result of these actions.
The complaint is the second filed by Shine Lawyers to the AHRC concerning a child protection department unlawfully removing Indigenous children, which may lead to a class action for concerned families.
The first complaint was lodged against the NSW Department of Communities and Justice in January.
Class actions special counsel, Caitlin Wilson, said Indigenous families across the country had been “torn apart in this modern-day Stolen Generation”.
“We hope that each claim in each State will set us on the path to file class actions for these marginalised families who will never know a life without the weight of this trauma.”
Source: WA First Nations child removal complaint filed in H… | NIT