Earlier this morning I was watching Good Morning America and their segment on the the dramatic rescue of the three young women enslaved in Cleveland, Ohio when the show's Dr. Wagner used the word "compliance" while discussing the reason of why hostages may not be able during their inprisonment speak-up and free themselves.
Compliance.
It hit me like a ton of bricks falling off a ten-story building.
You see, in the the world of international parental child abduction, and in this world's post-abduction reunification when both the targeted parent and the abductor may by court-order need to exist in the world of the victimized child, courts often do not realize that when they allow the kidnapper to remain bonded with the child-victim, not only does this create a sense of uncertainty for the child, but it wrongfully sends a message to the child that there was validity to their kidnapping.
Now it is imperative to remember that during the time of a child's international abduction, these children are in fact hostages. They are manipulated. They are brainwashed. They are taught to fear. And in the kidnapper's need to have that child sanction their kidnapping, kidnappers teach that failure to comply will be met with grave consequences.
Sadly, during many post-abduction reunifications, the abductor's intent to cause pain and suffering to the target parent continues via manipulation of a child.
Since the child cannot break free from the bindings of their kidnapper despite the efforts of the targeted parent, many of these children still live in fear, and are forced to live in spiritually and mentally bound ways.
They are still prisoners.
They must comply with the ever-present abductor's will.
And this must end.
