Friday, May 25, 2012

Italy Works With Australia On A Complex And Possibly Precedent Setting Case

Posted by Peter Quennell

[Above: Australian Broadcasting Corporation report from Brisbane posted 3 days ago]


Italy has the reputation of being among the more diligent of countries in respecting international law and conventions. So does Australia.

But now they find themselves in a strange kabuki dance fraught with international tension, courtesy of two divorced parents.

The image below with the faces disguised appeared yesterday on Facebook. It shows an Italian father and his four daughters on the coast near Brisbane in Australia. With one newspaper exception which could result in a heavy fine, no Italian or Australian newspapers are publishing their names.

The reason is that this is a battle over illegal child abduction and both countries have laws shielding the minors. The mother is an Australian who married an Italian in Italy and they had the four children there. When they were divorced the mother and father were awarded joint custody so the father would get to see his daughters half of the time.

Two years ago the mother took off back to Australia with the girls. The Australian authorities were starting to implement the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction which says cases must he handled speedily and the country of origin has sole rights over matters of custody.

The mother missed a court-ordered deadline of 15 May for a return of the children to the father who had flown to Australia to get them. They went into hiding but were tracked down by police to a house or hotel on the Queensland Sunshine Coast. 

It now appear that the four girls want to remain in Australia, and although under the Hague Convention they dont as minors have separate rights, majority Australian sympathy may be on their side. The mother has just made claims about the father which he has denounced and hence the image of himself and the girls below which he posted on Facebook.

The precedent is in whether the children should have a say, the resolution of which could affect future abduction cases world-wide.  Australia’s High Court will decide the case one way or another this August.

Here’s a past post on a remarkably similar case. Liam is still in Italy.



Posted by Peter Quennell on 05/25/12 at 03:48 PM in The legal followups,  The wider contexts,  Italian context

Comments

Correction. Italian media are in fact posting the names of the parents with the age of the mother (now 32) and the fact that they live or lived in Florence.

http://www.unita.it/notizie-flash/italia-australia-4-bambine-contese-madre-fara-appello-1.412974

http://www.giornalettismo.com/archives/328376/bambine-rubate/

Posted by Peter Quennell on 05/25/12 at 05:02 PM | #

[comment that was here will appear as a main post]

Posted by Grahame Rhodes on 05/26/12 at 11:39 AM | #

Hi another tragic story.. an Irish girl [exchange student] found dead in tragic circumastances in Japan. The poor family…

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/two-held-in-nicola-killing-3119743.html

Posted by Melanie on 05/27/12 at 10:29 PM | #
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