How To Stop Parental Child Abduction? The I CARE Foundation's International Travel Child Form and the Hague Child Abduction Convention

Travel Documents For Children?

Fear of international child abduction? Separation or Divorce in a multi-national relationship?

Selecting the best international travel consent form for your child can be the complete difference between an international parental child abduction being carried out or not by the child's other parent. Yes - I said 'International parental child abduction'.  You see, the vast majority of children - and there are tens of thousands of children targeted each year for international parental child abduction - who fall prey to abduction come from multi-cultural families that are often in conflict such as a failing relationship or outright divorce.

In today's global environment, there is only one global abduction prevention tool that can prevent against a child being wrongfully retained abroad, and that is the I CARE Foundation's International Travel Child Consent Form.  The fact is, there is no other child travel consent form created like it, as it it steep in the 1980 Hague Child Abduction Convention language needed to defend against a parental abduction. 

Peter Senese & the I CARE Foundation’s International Travel Child Consent Form 

In fact, the I CARE Foundation's travel consent form has been hailed by the international legal community as a critically important child abduction prevention tool that all parents around the world should use when allowing a child to travel abroad.

                                          

According to the I CARE Foundation's extensive research,  the majority of all cases of international parental child abduction occur when a child is wrongfully detained in a foreign country. The wrongful detention of a child abroad generally occurs during a court directed travel order or when travel occurs by mutual parental consent, particularly during the summer school break or the Christmas holiday season. However, unknown to the targeted parent who may either travel with the child or who may remain in the child’s country of habitual residency, the scheming parent intending to remain abroad with the child has more than likely crafted a well-orchestrated scheme that includes use of Article 12 and Article 13 of the Hague Convention in order to remain abroad with the child.  Unfortunately, the vast majority of children wrongfully detained in a foreign country do not come home.  The I CARE Foundation’s ‘International Travel Child Consent Form’ protects against misuse of all known international child abduction defenses under the 1980 Hague Child Abduction Convention, including Articles 12, 13, and 20, while upholding the intent and spirit of Article 1 of the Child Abduction Convention.

One of the major problems that exist today when parents are required to attempt to bring home their wrongfully retained child is that the ease parental child abductors have in defending their act of abduction has expanded significantly. One of the primary reasons behind this ease of defense is that courts around the world have wrongfully expanded the scope of Article 13 of the Hague Child Abduction Convention - the 'best interest' clause - to such a wide scale that it makes it extremely difficult for a left behind parent to reunite with their child. 

However there is real hope - hope that has been proven in a large and growing number of cases around the world: the I CARE Foundation's travel form has been able to mute fraudulent claims of an Article 12 and Article 13 defense in courtrooms around the world.

Peter Thomas Senese, the creator of the I CARE Foundation’sInternational Travel Child Consent Form and the Executive Director of the I CARE Foundation stated, “Perhaps the singular most important factor is that local courts in foreign countries are not abiding by the intent and spirit of the Hague Child Abduction Convention.  Specifically, all abductors will make defense claims under Article 12 or Article 13 of the Hague Convention.   Article 12 has to do with intent to relocate, and Article 13 has to do with the ‘Best interest of the child’, which recently has been expanded in many courts to include ‘Best interest of the child and extended family’. Unfortunately, Article 13 in particular has become the Achilles Heel of the abduction prevention community.

“Hague Conference During Hague proceedings, the convention calls for the inbound country’s Hague Court to look at Article 13 defenses only in extreme cases as the intent of the 1980 Hague Child Abduction Convention is to determine which court has jurisdiction of the child, and then properly and expeditiously return that child to the country where the court of original jurisdiction is located.  However, around the world, courts are no longer acting in an expeditious manner as is cited under Article 1 of The Hague Child Abduction Convention.  Instead, local courts are calling for detailed findings of what is in the best interest of the child and in essence making their own custody ruling even though they are not the court of original jurisdiction. Problematically, these courts are in essence mooting not only the 1980 Hague Child Abduction Convention but they are essentially quashing the court orders originating from the child’s country of original jurisdiction.

“What the I CARE Foundation’s ‘International Travel Child Consent Form’ does is it upholds the intent and spirit of the 1980 Hague Child Abduction Convention, including Article 1’s ‘Expeditious determination clause’. In addition, the travel consent form strongly addresses misuse of Article 12 and Article 13 defenses, and essentially moots use of false claim.  In addition, the I CARE Foundation’s travel consent form upholds the sanctity of the court of original jurisdiction located in the child’s country of habitual residency.

In essence, the I CARE Foundation’s ‘International Travel Child Consent Form’ is the only global child abduction prevention tool that safeguards against misuse of the Hague Child Abduction Convention defenses and calls for the immediate return of a child if that child is wrongfully detained by mutual consent of both parents.

Extensive high remarks for the I CARE Foundation’s International Travel Child Consent Form as a groundbreaking, comprehensive, and significant global international parental child abduction prevention tool have been voiced by the leadership within legal communities familiar with international parental child abduction during  legal forums around the world including compelling commentary from senior officers of the Hague Permanent Bureau during but not limited to international legal symposiums on child abduction held during the LEPCA Conference in the Hague, the IAML Conference in New York, and the Sapporo Bar Association’s Hague Symposium in Sapporo. In addition a large and growing number of attorney Bar Associations in the United States and abroad have published positive and meaningful feedback concerning the I CARE Foundation’s travel consent form with clear intent to educate their legal constituents about the landmark child abduction prevention tool. Perhaps most meaningful is the reality that many judges around the world have praised the I CARE Foundation’s travel consent form, have utilized the document in their courtrooms, and continue to implement the form in courtrooms around the world during child custody and child travel legal proceedings.

For more information please visit The I CARE Foundation at www.theicarefoundation.org.  

For attorneys seeking access to the legal brief and analysis of the travel consent for contact legal@theicarefoundation.org 

What U.S. Travel Consent Form Should Be Used For American Children Traveling Internationally?

The I CARE Foundation: For divorced, separated, or parents in a volatile situation, using the right international travel child consent form is by far one of the most important choices a parent can make when a child is either court-ordered to travel abroad or by mutual consent. The reality is that the majority of international child abduction cases occur when one parent wrongfully detains a child in a foreign country outside of a court order or consent of the other parent. Tragically, only a small minority of children abducted abroad are returned to their country of habitual residency by court-order. The vast majority of children do not come home. 

The I CARE Foundation's international travel child consent form is the only global travel child consent form that was created in order to protect against international child abduction.  The document has been called an exceptional child abduction prevention tool by the Secretary General of the Hague Conference, as well as a wide global range of leaders around the world familiar with child abduction. 

Here is the truth of what you need to know in order to protect your child from abduction related to the child not being returned to their home when they travel abroad.

1. All parents, regardless of where you and your child live, should ONLY use the I CARE Foundation's model, Hague-centric international travel child consent form.
2. Despite international child abduction being a serious crime, it is seldom prosecuted. In addition, the vast majority of countries that a child may be wrongfully detained in will not uphold an extradition request based upon parental child abduction. The point being that you should not expect the criminal prosecution threat or component to prevent abduction.
3. The 1980 Hague Child Abduction Convention was created to protect against abduction and in essence return children to their country of habitual residence. The problem is that there are sizable abduction defenses in the Hague Convention, making it extremely difficult for a child to be returned home. For example, less than 20% of American children abducted abroad to a country that is a member of the Hague Convention were court-ordered to be returned to their country of habitual residency. Additionally, only 11% of children abducted to non-Hague countries were court ordered returned.  Making up for some of the returns are voluntary returns, but lets be very clear about this: at least 50% of children abducted abroad do not come home one way or another. In the meantime, if you are a parent that has a child abducted, you can expect to pay a fortune of money in order to bring your child home. And we're not talking about a few thousand dollars. Reality is that many parents experience costs of hundreds of thousands of dollars, and even then, there is no guarantee they will get their child home.
4. The majority of targeted parents of abduction do not see the act of kidnapping coming. And why would they? After all, the number one priority of an abductor is to make sure that their intent to abduct is not revealed. It is critical to know the warning signs of child abduction. 
5. The I CARE Foundation's international travel child consent form is a Hague-centric form. This means it takes into consideration nearly every possibility that may occur when an abductor wrongfully detains a child abroad. Thus far, and to the best of our knowledge, every child using our form has in fact come home. 
6. Numerous law journals and law publications have published material on the I CARE Foundation's travel consent form. International child abduction is complex, as too are the defenses used by one parent against another when abduction occurs. When the I CARE Foundation created our travel consent form, we took into account the complexity of all these issues. Thus, our form is detailed and specific because we know the complexities of law surrounding abduction including the arguments an abducting parent may present in order to defend against their act. What we have done is essentially removed defenses often used in abduction cases by incorporating important language in our I CARE Foundation international travel child consent form. We invite you to review our legal analysis of the I CARE Foundation's travel consent form as published by the Colorado Bar Association to understand the complexity of abduction when a child is wrongfully detained abroad.

Here is the reality: the I CARE Foundation's International Travel Child Consent Form is the best and only global international child abduction prevention tool. No matter what - any parent, but especially those who have children from a multi-national marriage, and those who have or may be experiencing divorce or separation - must use the I CARE Foundation's travel form. 

On behalf of the I CARE Foundation,

Peter Thomas Senese 

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