Dear supporters,

2023 was a rollercoaster. I abandoned my asylum application in Switzerland as a fruitless exercise, and returned to the UK where there is momentum growing to challenge the violations of the law happening in the family courts. It felt like there is an opportunity to do something there. I was right.

In the months that followed there has been so much happening that it's been difficult to keep you all updated. I do my best on social media, primarily Twitter. The first important moment was the UN Special Rapporteur's report to the Human Rights Council on "egregious miscarriages of justice" and human rights violations in child custody cases, often, like mine, due to baseless allegations of "alienation" which are used to cover up abuse.

In September the BBC reported on research that revealed that family courts are giving custody of children to convicted batterers and child rapists, which sometimes leads to the death of mothers due to the stress of being powerless to help them. It also reported on the mothers taking refuge in Northern Cyprus, the only territory in Europe which is not returning children to abuse under the Hague Convention (video only available in the UK).

In October I visited The Hague to protest at a meeting of the Hague Conference on "private international law". I spent time with an incredible campaigner for child rights, former European Commission official Ms Roelie Post. I learned from her that there is no basis for using the Hague Convention in the EU legal frameworks. Most Governments have signed up to the Hague Conventions on family law due to clandestine lobbying, heavy propaganda, bullying and "economic diplomacy" by the US and other western countries, and also because unscrupulous officials, NGOs and individuals have spotted opportunities to make money out of the legalised trafficking of children.

A project mapping these behaviours is now underway.

The UN also addressed the Hague Conference, but rapporteurs were refused access to the meeting, underlining exactly how secretive and undemocratic this organisation is. There is no public oversight or participation in policymaking, which is unacceptable.

I was introduced to Dr Bandy X Lee, a well-known US psychiatrist and violence expert who interviewed me for her upcoming book on the family courts. She invited me and an American campaigner to testify to a private panel of alumni from the Harvard Program in Psychiatry and the Law. Participants were shocked and galvanised by what we told them.

To wrap up the year, I felt it would help parents going through the unbearable torment of family court to have the chance to meet Bandy online and ask her questions. Bandy kindly agreed and attended our global Town Hall on the "family courts" - which she says is a euphemism for organised crime.

The session was incredibly validating for parents, as Bandy, a medical doctor with many years' experience working with the most violent criminals, has a clear eyed view, particularly from her position in the USA where many agree the family courts are the biggest traffickers of children. This includes many cases of trafficking children for sexual exploitation.

You can read the writeup from the global Town Hall here. Please do subscribe to my Substack, as I will be publishing a lot more this year.

And to kick off the New Year, I announced the first global Family Court Unconference, an opportunity for impacted families and their supporters to share information and work together on solutions. It is unacceptable that lawyers and judges consider that only they hold the keys to family court reform, while they are the very people who are profiting from the racket.

This will be the first of many events this year.

One thing that experts agree on: the human rights issue of the family courts needs to be front and centre in the public domain. I learned that in the UK in 2019, 120 MPs asked for an urgent inquiry into the family courts and were turned down. In the runup to the elections, we need to be pressing political parties not about an inquiry, not for "reform", but for abolition of the family courts as we know them today. Not just in the UK, but worldwide.

I will do my best to keep you updated on progress and ask for your help with activities planned to end the atrocities which are being committed against children in the "family courts" and under the Hague Convention.

Once again, please do sign up to my Substack and follow me on Twitter, these are the best ways to keep updated on my progress tackling the "family courts". 

Thank you for your support. Please know and believe, we will get there, together.