A report issued last September by Human Rights Watch cited Russian media reports that over 3.4 million Ukrainians — including 555,000 children – had “entered” the Russian Federation from Ukraine. The humanitarian organization called these transfers “a serious violation of the laws of war that constitute war crimes and potential crimes against humanity.
As millions of other Ukrainians fled to neighboring, friendlier countries, the impact on children separated from immediate and extended family members (including those with one or both parents on active military duty) has been horrendous. The impact is greatest, perhaps, on children with one parent siding with the Russians and the other siding with the Ukrainians. If (when) the war ends, many of the children from these broken families may well become the subjects of international custody battles.
Of particular note is that both Russia and Ukraine – and nearly all other nations housing Ukrainian refugees – are among the 82 signatories to the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. The convention only addresses cases in which one parent unlawfully transports a child to another country in violation of legal agreements. There is grave concern among human rights organizations that many children’s lives will be irreparably harmed by being separated from the lawful custodial parent.
The Hague Convention was adopted unanimously in 1980 by all nations participating in the 14th Session of the Hague Conference on Private International Law. It was initially crafted to prevent the abduction of a child by the non-custodial parent – most often the father – to an unknown destination and to ensure that the child be returned to his or her principal caregiver and habitual environment. But real-world data indicate that the initial assumptions of the Hague signatories were incorrect.
The Hague Domestic Violence Project was begun in 2003 with the goal of clearly establishing child exposure to domestic violence as an exception to the otherwise required return of the child to the country of habitual residence under the Hague Convention. The project is currently housed at the American Bar Association’s Commission on Domestic and Sexual Violence. But progress has been slow – and incomplete – despite a preponderance of evidence.
In a 2010 Time Magazine article reporter Mirela Iverac cited research from Jeffrey Edleson and Taryn Lindhorst that found the Hague Convention is often used against women seeking safety for themselves and their children from violent husbands. An earlier study by British law professor Nigel Lowe had found that more than two-thirds of alleged abductors in Hague cases were women, the majority of whom had their children ordered to be returned to another country.
Since this research was first made public, there have been numerous attempts to update and revise the Hague Convention to better protect children and their fleeing parent from an abusive partner (noting that since the document was first signed, same-sex marriages have become legal in many if not most of the signatory nations).
In 2020, the European Parliament’s Committee on Legal Affairs (JURI Committee) issued a 40th year report on the successes and challenges of the Hague Convention, in which it recommended that more needed to be done in terms of prevention of abductions. Among the recommendations were harmonization of the relocation proceedings and principles, enforceability of mediation agreements, and increasing the autonomy of the parties through inclusion of residence and custody plans in prenuptial agreements.
A U.S. State Department travel advisory outlining reasons why the Hague Convention matters lays out the framework for countries to work together in specific ways to resolve international abduction cases. According to State, a parent without a custody order may be able to prove violations of custodial rights and the immigration status or nationality of the parties cannot determine whether the child must be returned to the habitual residence.
But State also asserted that the U.S. government is powerless in its attempts to coerce foreign nations to obey the Hague Convention. These court cases can be quite messy and time-consuming – despite the treaty’s goal of having children returned to their habitual residence within six weeks of a parent filing a Hague Convention petition. As might be expected, political considerations may come into play – and that is likely going to the case with Ukrainian children taken to Russia.
White Ribbon USA was founded by Veronika Mudra, a former refugee from Ukraine who received asylum in the U.S. as a victim of domestic violence. She says her organization has “a unique mission of engaging government representatives, thought leaders and activists to end violence against women and to reform the Hague Convention treaty so that a child is not separated from a parent abused by a former partner.
Mudra notes that domestic violence knows no border and is a truly global concern. She lauds the crafters of the Hague Convention for their efforts to safeguard victims of domestic violence and their families. In the U.S. alone, domestic violence hotlines receive about 21,000 calls every day.
But, she says, while the initial goal was to bring children back “home” where custody and access issues can be addressed by local courts, the sad reality is that children sent back to certain countries and to certain homes face grave consequences. All too often the abusive partner/parent has been able to twist the law to regain custody or access that results in further harm to the child and the victim of domestic violence.
White Ribbon USA has produced the film Reunited, which is based on the true story of a Ukrainian refugee mother whose child was returned to a proven abuser by the Hague Convention despite a California court’s assessment of the “grave danger” posed to the child. It focuses on the cyclical nature of domestic violence and immigrant families who are at greatest risk and shows how the well-meaning Hague Convention has been used to re-victimize those who had escaped domestic violence.
Mudra has also created White Ribbon Ukraine, located in Kviv, to assist displaced parents address both domestic violence and child kidnapping. White Ribbon has been developing support programs for refugees who have suffered from domestic violence, with special emphases on workplace gender equality, early gender equality education for children, affordable and supportive housing, and female economic empowerment.
White Ribbon USA has also been gathering resources to provide urgently needed assistance to the Ukrainian people. This has included humanitarian and medical aid, warm clothing, and other provisions to civilians and soldiers through partner organizations Revived Soldiers Ukraine and Georgian National Legion. White Ribbon has also reprogrammed its mobile app for Ukraine to serve as a platform against human and child trafficking and submitted an official humanitarian plea to the U.S. government to support Ukraine.
But most of all, from her own experiences and those of the many whom White Ribbon has assisted since its founding, Mudra continues to seek partners for true reform of the Hague Convention that is long overdue.
About the Author
Duggan Flanakin is a senior policy analyst at the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow who writes on a wide variety of public policy issues.
