Judges Around the World Struggle With Increase in Child Custody Disputes Between Parents Who Want to Move and the Parent Who Is Left Behind

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National Center for Missing & Exploited Children

Mar 30, 2010, 09:30 ET

For Judges this presents a Solomon-like Dilemma. Whatever the Decision Someone is Harmed

ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 30 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today's easy global travel has created unsolvable challenges in family law as judges grapple with a dramatic increase in the number of cases involving a parent who wants to move to another country with the child over the objections of the other parent.

For judges, this presents a Solomon-like dilemma. If the request is approved, the left-behind parent is denied reasonable access to his or her child. If the request is not approved, what might have been a life-changing opportunity for the other parent and child is denied. It is a daunting legal challenge that is handled very differently depending on the judge, the court and the country the case is handled.

More than 50 judges and other experts from fourteen countries attended an unusual meeting last week in Washington, DC to discuss these types of cases which judges call "cross-border family relocation." The meeting, the "International Judicial Conference on Cross-Border Family Relocation," was organized by the International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children and the Hague Conference on Private International Law and was hosted by the U.S. Department of State on March 23-25. Countries participating included Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Egypt, Germany, India, Mexico, New Zealand, Pakistan, Spain, United Kingdom and the United States.

"This is a huge and growing problem. Judges are seeing a dramatic increase in these types of cases and are put in a situation of having to make an impossible decision," said Ernie Allen, president of the International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children. "They represent life-changing situations for the child and left-behind parent. Whatever the decision, someone is harmed and someone is going to suffer a loss."

At the conclusion of the three-day meeting, the judges and other attendees adopted and issued the "Washington Declaration on International Family Relocation" which is a framework outlining the issues that should be considered by all judges to standardize how these types of cases are handled.

The "Washington Declaration on International Family Relocation" includes thirteen recommendations including:

Every state should have legal procedures that address the right to relocate with a child;
Reasonable notice should be provided prior to relocation;
The best interest of the child should be the primary consideration;
Standardized factors judges should consider in all international relocation cases including the right of the child to maintain a personal relationship and contact with both parents, the views of the child (taking into consideration the child's age and maturity), schooling, employment, existing custody agreements, reasons for relocation; history of family violence or abuse, and other issues;
Mediation should be used and a voluntary settlement relocation agreement reached by parents;
All countries should sign on to both the 1980 and 1996 Hague Conventions which provide a solid global framework for international cooperation on this issue;

The full version of the "Washington Declaration on International Family Relocation" can be located at the website for the International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children at www.ICMEC.org

About the International Centre for Missing & Children

The International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children is a private, non-profit 501(c)(3) non-governmental organization. It is the leading agency working on a global basis to combat child abduction and exploitation. It is the sister organization of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children in the United States. For more information, visit www.ICMEC.org.

SOURCE National Center for Missing & Exploited Children