Raising Awareness

As you are reading this, mothers throughout the world are being forced to live in a perpetual state of fear, as a tragic consequence of simply striving to protect their children. It is incomprehensible to consider the fact that they are facing the same horrors as I did, albeit some 20 years ago. Isolated from family and friends, as a last resort, women flee to safety with their children, often across vast geographical distances, in a desperate bid to reach the sanctuary of their homeland.

Research shows that:

90% of Child Abduction cases are brought against women who are fleeing domestic violence

Courageous mothers, who trust a judicial system to validate their evidence and protect them from further suffering, find themselves criminalised and at the mercy of a high court judge. As the horrific consequences of their actions unfold, the archaic wheels of justice begin to revolve, forcing them to face yet another terror on a scale of unfathomable magnitude.

Why do we continue to allow this?

Is it lack of information? After all, we can’t begin to effectively change something we know nothing about!

I would like to think it’s a result of ignorance on the part of those in power. This would mean these people are unaware of the trauma they cause on a daily basis; oblivious to the urgent need to scrutinise and re-evaluate the effectiveness of a legal system that credits itself with working ‘in the best interests of the child’.

I wonder if these judges meet for coffee in-between hearings, amicably jesting, jovially competing to see who has ordered the highest number of abductors back to their place of ‘habitual residence’ and consequently, their abuser?

Can their consciences be clear when the 2022 GlobalARRK consultation results found that only

22% of professionals surveyed in England and Wales said children and young people are properly safeguarded by the current international child abduction / Hague system.

By simple deduction, this exposes the fact that a horrifying 78% of professionals are fully aware that protection measures are NOT enough to ensure the safety of the women and children they send back!

My book serves to underline these findings. By giving a detailed account of events, it brings to the fore, the atrocious failings of a legal system that is no longer fit for purpose.

Once read, it can’t be unread.

Sharing its content, I hope to play a small part in the catalyst for change.

In the words of author Haruki Murakami,

‘With great knowledge, comes great responsibility’

So, I’m asking you, the reader, to bear witness to my story and to judge for yourself.