The struggle of migrant mothers: Escaping abuse and confronting international abduction charges – Migrant Women Press

Head of the Children Department at Dawson Cornwell, a family law firm established in 1972 based in London, Carolina Marín Pedreño explained how The Hague Convention works when meeting a domestic violence situation:

“The Convention allows very exceptional defences where a child should not be returned by the Court. One of those defences is if there is a ‘grave risk’ that the child would be placed in an intolerable situation, as stated by Article 13(1)(b) of the Convention.

“The difficulty for mothers to understand this is because they think ‘if I’m a victim of abuse, consequently my child is a victim of abuse’, and they don’t understand that ‘grave risk’ is ‘future risk’, so the Court needs to consider whether there is a risk in the future return.

“Maybe the mother has been a victim of domestic abuse, but if the Court is satisfied that she’s going to be protected in the other country by measures that the applicant (the father) offers to the Court or if the country has its remedies to protect her, as a victim of abuse, and the child, they need to comply with the Convention and return the child.

Although the cases of international abduction of children envision protecting the child, there is a great debate on what is classified as a ‘grave risk’ and what is the limit a mother has to reach to be protected from their abusers.

According to Juliana Wahlgren, Revibra’s report revealed that amongst the 300 cases they have had in the past three years, 98% had proved domestic violence. However, sometimes the proof isn’t enough, or the violence is only against the woman, which the Brazilian judge wouldn’t extend to the family.

Source: The struggle of migrant mothers: Escaping abuse and confronting international abduction charges – Migrant Women Press

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