A reinterpretation of The Hague child abduction convention to protect children from exposure to sexism, mysogyny and violence against women

Abstract

The 1980 Hague Convention benefits from the 2011 Istanbul Convention which makes violence against women visible as a global phenomenon. A sexist culture may explain abductions by fathers, but also by mothers fleeing violence. Violence against women is a wider phenomenon as compared to domestic violence, although both are structurally linked to the historical subordination of women. Such subordination has naturally led to a proprietary view of the family even in advanced socio-cultural contexts. In the perspective of the best interests of the child, the distinction between wrongful transfers of a child’s residence by his or her primary caregiver and abductions in the strict sense deserves to be reconsidered.