A new study of court cases, co-authored by the U of M’s Jeffery Edleson, shows that when battered women left their abusive partners and returned with their children to the United States, half of the time, U.S. courts sent the children back, usually to their fathers.
Hague Convention needs to factor in domestic violence in court decisions MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (12/08/2010) —A new study of court cases against battered women living abroad shows that when the women left their abusive partners and returned with their children to the United States, half of the time, U.S. courts sent the children back, usually to their fathers. The study, co-authored by University of Minnesota researcher Jeffrey Edleson, also shows that almost a third of these estranged husbands filed criminal kidnapping charges against their wives. Released in conjunction with Human Rights Day, Friday, Dec. 10, the Hague Domestic Violence Survey is intended to help to establish domestic violence as a factor in whether courts send children back to their fathers. And the authors of the report hope their website serves as a resource for women and lawyers faced with Hague petitions. The children's return is in accordance with an international treaty, the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, which affects thousands of children each year. The Hague Convention does not explicitly factor in domestic violence in deciding whether to send children back to the country where they lived.
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