A Death in Argentina
The I CARE Foundation is an organisation dedicated to stopping international child abduction and trafficking. It also issues newsletters to people who might be concerned in this, including our firm.
International child abduction is a significant international problem, and it is a problem for children in particular, but also for the left behind parent and the entire extended family of the child.
We have previously reported on new countries signing up to the International Hague Child Abduction Convention of 1980. However, while that is an excellent development, the tide of child abduction continues.
The I CARE Foundation particularly emphasises that international parental child abduction is often downgraded to a child custody dispute whereas it is actually kidnapping and the kidnapped children are often placed in extremely dangerous situations, as are sometimes the left behind parents. The US Department of Justice in June 2013 issued a report warning that children of parental abduction face extreme violence and possible murder. Threats of murder to the parent trying to recover the child are a consistent theme.
Tragically, in a recent case the threat became the reality. A left behind Spanish father obtained a order for the return of his six year old daughter from Argentina to Spain. Before he could collect his daughter to take her home, he was shot five times by hooded gunmen while sitting in a car waiting for his attorney to arrive. It had taken him four years of international child abduction litigation to secure his daughter's return after the child's mother abducted her from Spain to Argentina.
What will now become of this child is uncertain but the tragedy that began with the child's abduction is by no means over with the death of her father and will scar the entire family for a long time to come.
In a previous article we reported on an international travel child consent form developed by the I CARE Foundation. If your child or children is or are travelling abroad, please talk to us about getting the consent form signed by the departing parent as a precaution.
