[A] Power and Control Wheel was co-created by FiLiA Hague Mothers and its members: Hagued mothers, domestic abuse experts, and legal professionals. The Hague Power and Control Wheel identifies the numerous ways in which perpetrator fathers target what is most precious to mothers; their children and their ability to care for them and keep them safe from the abusive fathers. This paper explores the theoretical underpinnings, methodological process, and content of the Hague Power and Control Wheel – a vital new tool that reveals how international law can perpetuate abuse.
The original assumption was that the taking parent would be the father, and that the ‘left-behind’ parent would be the primary-carer mother. However, as recent studies reveal, 75% of parents filing Hague cases today are fathers, and 94% of the mothers who take children across borders are the children’s primary caregivers (Lowe & Stephens, 2023). While the Convention aims to restore children to their ‘habitual residence’, it fails to consider the reality that, for many children, the habitual residence is a site of danger. Despite the Convention’s commercial framing, its consequences for mothers are profoundly punitive. A return order may separate children from their primary caregiver permanently. Mothers may face jail, lose custody, and have their relationships with their children systematically dismantled. The Convention does not protect children. It restores power to the perpetrator, ignoring decades of evidence showing how domestic abuse operates through coercive control.
The Hague Power and Control Wheel encapsulates the contradictions of a treaty that claims to protect children while punishing those who try to keep them safe. It evidences the extent to which this international convention can serve as an extension of coercive control, perpetuating abuse under the disguise of neutrality, comity, and justice.
Source: HM-Expert-paper-8.pdf