Child abduction: Encyclopedia - Child abduction

Child abduction

Child abduction is the abduction or kidnapping of a young child (or baby) by an older person.

Several distinct forms of child abduction exist:

• A stranger removes a child (usually a baby) to bring up as their own child.
• One parent removes a child, usually after divorce during an access visit.

While cases have been reported from antiquity, recently this phenomenon has taken on new meaning with various movies and television series (example: Without a Trace) depicting the premise of people who remove children from strangers to bring up as their own often after the death of their own child.

Child abduction - Removal by stranger

Women who kidnap babies to bring up as their own are typically unable to have children of their own. The crime is often premeditated, with the woman often simulating pregnacy to reduce suspicion when a baby suddenly appears in the household.

An example of child abduction is the case of Montana Barbaro, stolen in Melbourne, Australia on Saturday 7 August 2004. A male attacker knocked the mother to the ground, and a female removed the baby. They fled in a car. Montana was recovered some 40 hours later, unharmed.

Child abduction - Parental abduction

Parental child abduction, in simple terms, is the permanent removal of a child from their place of habitual residence (the place where their life is established) by one parent, without the permission of the other parent. A common parental child abduction scenario involves a divorced parent who lost a child custody battle. Depending on the laws of the country the child has been taken from, this may or may not constitute a criminal offence. From the UK, to remove a child for a period of 28 days or more without the permission of the other parent (or person with parental responsibilty), is a criminal offence.

Serious problems can arise when parental abduction results in moving a child, with a parent, across an international border. The laws of the states are different, and a foreign child custody order may not be recognized.

The Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction is an international treaty and legal mechanism to recover children abducted to another country by one parent or family member. The United States signed this into law in 1988. Japan is the only G7 nation not have signed this treaty into law, and Japanese law makes this country a haven for Japanese nationals who have removed their children from another country. As of December 24th 2005, Interpol has outstanding warrants for two Japanese nationals, the most recent addition being Wood, Ayako, who abducted her son and daughter from Canada to Japan in 2004. The children's father, Murray Wood, a Canadian national, presently has his case for the return of his children to Canada and his care before the Japanese Supreme Court. Interpol fugitive listing here: http://www.interpol.int/public/Data/Wanted/Notices/Data/2005/47/2005_23547.asp

Mr Wood has the full support of the Canadian court which have ruled that the children be returned to their habitual place of abode, as they were born and raised in Canada until their abduction. This Canadian ruling has not been recognized by the Japanese family court and Japanese high court as having any relevance to Japanese citizens. Mr Wood's case is one of many such instances of Japan ignoring internationally agreed tenets of human rights in regards to child abduction, both cross-border and domestically. More examples and stories of such abductions can be found here: http://www.frij.net/m/index.asp Link goes to Father's Rights in Japan website. This link to Children's Rights Network of Japan http://www.CRNJapan.com/en/ Murray Wood's personal website detailing his attempts to reclaim his children through the Japanese legal system: http://public.sd38.bc.ca:8004/~MWood/

Child abduction - Children abducted for slavery in Africa

There are reports that abduction of children to be used or sold as slaves is common in parts of Africa.

The Lord's Resistance Army, a rebel paramilitary group operating mainly in northern Uganda, is notorious for its abductions of children for use as child soldiers or sex slaves. According to the Sudan Tribune, as of 2005, more than 20,000 children have been kidnapped by the LRA. [1]

See also

• Code Adam
• AMBER Alert
• Amber report

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Child abduction", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki