I am urging any mothers out there to enter this survey, it will help to save children like mine!

A survey investigating how the the Hague Convention on International Parental Child Abduction (The Hague) might be impacting mothers trying to cross international borders has been launched. 

Mothers have reported difficulties after relationships with the fathers of their children broke down, having been unaware of the Hague Convention. Several mothers have said they were fleeing intimate partner violence (domestic abuse), or trying to protect their children from sexual abuse. 

The mothers then found themselves being 'Hagued' - a term used to describe a process which forces mothers through the court system to return their children to another jurisdiction or location, which can lead to children being removed from their mothers. 

The survey was created by a mother with experience of this phenomenon. 

A May 2022 briefing paper by legal academics at Queensland University of Technology's Centre for Justice, in Australia, offers this helpful summary of the issues:

The Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction provides legal machinery to require the swift return of children who are wrongfully taken from their country of habitual residence. Its drafters intended it to address the situation where a non custodial father took their child across international borders without permission from the child’s mother. However, it did not consider the circumstance where a custodial mother must cross international borders with her child to flee family and domestic violence.

Speaking to Researching Reform, the mother said, "The Hague is being misused. We have many women who were not living in a country, they were only visiting with their children but were Hagued back to that country after they returned home. We have many who had been given permission by the fathers to return home and in some cases the fathers had purchased the flight tickets, only to be Hagued and then lose their children." 

"Some of the worst cases are those of foreign mothers who lose their immigration rights to live in a country following a split from the father, these women are returning home because they have to but are then Hagued and lose their children entirely," she said. 

"Other sad cases which are also very common are women fleeing domestic violence, due to the strict time constraints of the Hague these women are returned back to dangerous situations, in some cases these women have died as a consequence," she added. 

The survey has been produced with the help of Dr Adrienne Barnett, a Reader in Law at Brunel University London, and collaborations with the following mothers who have lived experience:

• Hagued Mums (www.facebook.com/HaguedMums)

• Family Court Crisis (www.twitter.com/court_crisis)

• Her Hague Story (www.instagram.com/herhaguestory)

• Jan Ford The Loving Abductor (www.janford.uk) and;  

• Narcissist Free Natalie (www.tiktok.com/@narcissistfreenatalie)

The survey "will gather much-needed data that will fill a gap in what is known about the process, impact and aftermath of Hague Convention proceedings for mothers and children," Barnett said.

The research has been brought to the attention of Reem Alsalem, the United Nations Rapporteur on Violence Against Women and Girls. 

The study has four aims:  

1.    To better understand what causes mothers to leave, or wish to leave, the country in which they are staying / residing in.  

2.    To better understand why some mothers and children have been falsely Hagued to a country they did not reside in / or was not their residence.  

3.    To better understand the challenges that mothers and children face after they leave.  

4.    To better understand the impact upon mothers and children if they are forced to return to the country they left.  

The survey is open to mothers who found that their human right of freedom of movement had been denied and/or restricted under the Hague Convention and/or other laws. 

This includes mums who:

·         Have been left behind 

·         Have tried to leave 

·         Are stuck in a country

·         Returned back to the country they left, including non Hague countries, Hague countries and those returning to 'home' countries

Mothers who would like to see or take part in the survey should send an email to haguedmums@pm.me to get the link and the password to access the survey. 

Your information:

Mothers can answer the survey without leaving their name or contact details.  

If mums choose to leave their contact details, the survey team will collate and store survey responses in line with the GDPR, HIPAA, CCPA and the UK Data Protection Act 2018.  

All data is collected and transmitted over a secure HTTPS connection and encrypted using AES 256 based encryption software.   

Answers will be anonymised and then statistically analysed. Those answers and the statistics taken from all the data collected, may be shared with politicians (to push for any necessary legislative changes), journalists and social media (to raise public awareness), and lawyers and advisors to help promote the rights of mothers and children as a group.  

Findings from the survey will also be shared with Dr Wilfried Ludwig Weh, at the European Committee of Human Rights and used in two applications being made by him directly to the European Court of Human Rights.

The survey closes at 11:59 UTC on 30th September, 2023. 

Many thanks to the mother who created this survey for alerting us to the study.