International

Europäische Kommission

EU-Kinderrechtsstrategie
Kindgerechte Justiz: Eine EU, in der die Justiz die Rechte und Bedürfnisse von
Kindern wahrt (S. 15 ff.), 2021

"... müssen die nationalen Justizsysteme besser gerüstet sein, um den Bedürfnissen und Rechten von Kindern gerecht zu werden. Angehörigen der
Justiz mangelt es bisweilen an Schulungen, um mit Kindern auf altersgerechte Weise zu interagieren, unter anderem wenn sie über die Ergebnisse eines Verfahrens informieren, und um das Wohl des Kindes zu wahren. Das Recht des Kindes auf Gehör wird nicht immer gewahrt, und es gibt nicht immer Mechanismen zur Verhinderung mehrfacher Anhörungen des Kindes oder mehrfacher Beweiserhebungen."

Eurostat

Handbuch: Methodik für die EU-weite Erhebung über geschlechtsspezifische Gewalt gegen Frauen und andere Formen zwischenmenschlicher Gewalt (EU-GSG-Erhebung), 2021 Edition 



Europarat

Empfehlung zur Umsetzung des Übereinkommens des Europarates zur Verhütung und Bekämpfung von Gewalt gegen Frauen und häuslicher Gewalt durch Deutschland, 12.12.2022

Group of Experts on Action against Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (GREVIO): Evaluierungsbericht über gesetzgeberische und andere Maßnahmen zur Umsetzung des Übereinkommens des Europarats zur Verhütung und Bekämpfung von Gewalt gegen Frauen und häuslicher Gewalt (Istanbul-Konvention) in Deutschland, 7.10.2022

Kap. V A3: Custody, visitation rights and safety, S. 62ff, Auszug:
„…the high risk of violence against women and their children remaining
 undetected and/or contested because of the assessments made by court-appointed experts in cases concerning custodyand visitation rights, which frequently consider that the rejection of a parent by the child is based on theso-called notion of “parental alienation”. This and other related notions proven to be without any scientific foundation seem to be widespread in Germany, and are even used in the training of youth welfare officers.“
 


3. GREVIO-Bericht veröffentlicht, Juni 2022
Zusammenfassende Analyse des Berichts in der FamRZ, 20.6.2022

Europarat, Juni 2022:
Pressemitteilung: Domestic violence: Countries should improve child custody safety and victim protection report

Europäischer Gerichtshof für Menschenrechte

FamRZ am 26.1.2023 zum Urteil des Europäischen Gerichtshofs für Menschenrechte, ECHR 353 (2022), Press Release, zur Berücksichtigung häuslicher Gewalt bei Umgangs- und Sorgerechtskonflikten,  s.a. FamRZ 2023, Heft 4, m. Anm. Thomas Meysen 


Press Release, ECHR 353 (2022), 10.11.2022
The best interests of two children compelled to attend contact sessions with their violent father were disregarded
Case 25426/20

Fact Sheet Domestic Violence, November 2022

Case of Katsikeros v. Greece 

(Antrag 2303/19), Straßburg, Urteil vom 21.7.2022

Handbuch zu den europarechtlichen Grundlagen im Bereich der Rechte des Kindes,  Agentur der Europäischen Union für Grundrechte und Europarat, 2015 

 


 

Vereinte Nationen I

Eingabe vom 14.12.2022 zum Aufruf der Vereinten Nationen - Hochkommissariat für Menschenrechte (OHCHR)
von Wolfgang Hammer, Ludwig Salgo, Uwe Tewes, Pajam Rokni-Yazdi, Anne Müller, Marie Köhler

Brief an die Vereinten Nationen - OHCHR
Anlage 1 - Fact Sheet
Anlage 2 - Studie
Anlage 3 - nicht zur Veröffentlichung
Anlage 4 - Neun Antworten

United Nations Human Rights 

Call for inputs – Custody cases, violence against women and violence against children
Issued by Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, its causes and consequences
Deadline 15 December 2022

"Purpose:  To inform the Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls’ report on the nexus between custody and guardianship cases, violence against women and violence against children, with a focus on the abuse of the concept of “parental alienation” and related or similar concepts."
 

The Guardian, 14.12.2022: 
UN to investigate use of ‘parental alienation’ tactic in custody cases 

Vereinte Nationen II

Domestic Violence and Custody Rights: The protection of women and children from violence in light of the new Commission proposal for a Directive Statement delivered by the Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, its causes and consequences to the European Parliament, 24.1.2023

Statement | Special Procedures, 4.11.2022: 
Brazil: UN experts urge new government to target violence against women and girls, repeal parental alienation law 


Raday, F. 2019. “Gender Equality and Women’s Rights in the Context of Child Custody and Maintenance: An International and Comparative Analysis.” UN Women Discussion Paper Series No. 30. New York: UN
Women. 


Großbritannien

The Law Society Gazette, 19.1.2023:

Media get the go-ahead to report family proceedings

"..[there has been] quite a lot of material in the last few years that has undermined public confidence in the family divisional justice system. Because we usually conduct our business behind closed doors [...] it has allowed suspicion to grow. The only cases that can be reported upon are those that go to the Court of Appeal where something goes wrong so we have an embedded bias."


"This is [...] about opening up the system." 


Ministry of Justice, Press Release:

Major overhaul of family courts to protect domestic abuse victims


"It found that an adversarial process in the family courts often worsened conflict between parents, which could retraumatise victims and their children.

Fundamental reform of how the courts hear cases, through a new investigative approach, will be trialled as part of the Integrated Domestic Abuse Courts pilot – these consider family and criminal matters in parallel in order to provide more consistent support for victims. Emphasis will be placed on getting to the root of an issue and ensuring all parties are safe and able to provide evidence on an equal footing – without the retraumatising effects of being in court with an abusive ex-partner.

Additionally, Ministers will launch a review into the presumption of ‘parental involvement’ that often encourages a child’s relationship with both parents, unless the involvement of that parent would put the child at risk."


The Guardian, 13.11.2022:

‘Unqualified experts’ should not have role in child welfare cases, court told 


The Guardian, 12.6.2022:
Questions over use of ‘psychological experts’ in parental alienation cases

Parents – more often mothers – are losing access to their children on the advice of unregulated experts, an Observer investigation reveals

"The unregulated experts shattering children's lives"

 

The Guardian, 14.8.2021: ‘Women are routinely discredited’: How courts fail mothers and children who have survived abuse 


Independent, 22.7.2020:
Family courts carry out ‘state sanctioned abuse’ of domestic abuse survivors by letting perpetrators see children, commissioner warns


The Guardian, 14.3.2020: 

Children and family law: 'How can you share parenting with an abusive parent?'

Frankeich

The Conversation, 11.1.2023:

La résidence alternée est-elle toujours dans l’intérêt de l’enfant ? 

Auszug:
"Les initiatives populaires en faveur de la résidence alternée se multiplient depuis quelques années, sur Internet et dans l’espace public, portées par des associations qui se targuent de s’appuyer sur des arguments scientifiques censés démontrer que ce mode de résidence serait la solution miracle contre la délinquance juvénile, l’échec scolaire, la maltraitance infantile et même l’émancipation des femmes."
sowie
"L’intérêt supérieur de l’enfant doit motiver la décision du juge. Mais la notion d’intérêt de l’enfant est surtout « un principe d’interprétation », « une boîte où chacun met ce qu’il souhaite trouver », qui dans son essence même exige la plus grande vigilance. Veut-on privilégier l’intérêt des parents ou l’intérêt des enfants ? L’idée qu’il est dans l’intérêt de tout enfant de partager également son temps chez son père et sa mère n’est peut-être qu’une projection d’adulte. Car comme le rappelle très justement la CIDE, l’essentiel pour l’épanouissement de l’enfant est de « grandir dans le milieu familial, dans un climat de bonheur, d’amour et de compréhension ».

FAZ, Michaela Wiegel, 5.1.2023:

Haftstrafe für Französin wegen Kindesentführung
"Um die gemeinsame Tochter vor dem Vater zu schützen, der diese sexuell missbraucht haben soll, war die Frau samt Kind in der Schweiz untergetaucht. Gegen den Urteilsspruch regt sich in Frankreich heftiger Protest." 

Paris Match, Interview mit dem Vizepräsidenten der "
Commission indépendante sur l’inceste et les violences sexuelles faites aux enfants (Ciivise)", 27.4.2022 

Violences sexuelles faites aux enfants : «La société accepte de courir le risque de ne pas protéger les victimes» 


Dissertation, Pierre-Guillaume Prigent, 2021:

Les stratégies des pères violents en contexte de séparation parentale : contrôle coercitif, complicité institutionnelle et résistance des femmes 


The Connexion, 29.5.2019
Dangers of France’s child-sharing custody system


Dänemark

Pia Deleuran, 2019: What happened to "The Child's Best Interest in Denmark"?

The Local, 15.12.2014: Danish custody law is an inescapable trap
Auszug:
"The Danish custody law is a trap. And if you become pregnant in Denmark or if you bring children to live in Denmark, you are already trapped. Except you won’t know it until it is too late."

Berlingske, 17.9.2014:

Hård kritik af forældreansvarslov 

"Forældreansvarsloven skaber flere konflikter end løsninger og bliver af kritikere beskrevet som årsag til, at rekordmange forældre ender i fogedretten, fordi den ene forældre nægter den anden forælder samvær med deres fælles børn."

Marianne Hester, 2005: Children, abuse and parental contact in Denmark
"In Denmark, recognition of links between domestic violence and possible harm of children were implicit in professional practice and discourses related to custody and contact during the earlier part of the 1990s, and led to a safety-oriented ‘pragmatic’ approach with regard to child contact arrangements (Hester and Radford, 1992, 1996). The latter part of the 1990s, however, has seen a shift away from such a safety-oriented approach towards a much stronger emphasis on contact. Arguments favouring ‘equality’ between parents and recourse to outdated and misleading evidence concerning ‘father deprivation’ has underpinned an ideological or rights-based change in legislation and policy." 


Australien

5.1.2023, Magistrates' Court of Victoria: Specialist Family Violence Courts

Government of Australia: Ensuring family safety in Australian Hague Convention Cases, 12.12.2022
i.V.m.
The Diplomat, 14.12.2022: What Australia’s New Law Means for Hague Convention Parental Child Abduction Cases 


17.10.2022, Australian Government - Department of Social Services
The National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children 2022-2032 
starting on page 61: "Improving the family law system" 


Australien, Whitlam Institute, Within Western Sydney University, Forschungsbericht, Camilla Nelson, 26.5.2022:
They Thought it was Safe: Securing Children's Safety and Rights in Australia's Family Law System

Camilla Nelson, Chatarine Lumby, Sachbuch, Australien, 2021:
Broken - Children, Parents and Family Courts
"Broken explores the complexities and failures of Australia’s family courts through the stories of children and parents whose lives have been shattered by them. [...] take the reader into the back rooms of the system to show what it feels like to be caught up in spirals of abusive litigation. They reveal how the courts have been politicised by [...] men’s rights groups, and how those they are meant to protect most – children – are silenced or treated as property."

Parliament of Australia -
Joint Select Committee on Australia's Family Law System, Process and Final Report, November 2021

Zoe Rathus, 2020: A history of the use of the concept of parental alienation in the Australian family law system: contradictions, collisions and their consequences, Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law, 42:1, 5-17


Australian Government
Australian Law Reform Commission, 2019:
Family Law for the Future — An Inquiry into the Family Law System


„Faith in the system is lost.“ 

USA I

Kathryn J. Spearman, Viola Vaughan-Eden, Jennifer L. Hardesty & Jacquelyn

Campbell (2023): Post-separation abuse: A literature review connecting tactics to harm, Journal

of Family Trauma, Child Custody & Child Development 


ProPublica, 26.2.2023: Barricaded Siblings Turn to TikTok While Defying Court Order to Return to Father They Say Abused Them 


Joan S. Meier, Sean Dickson, Chris S. O’Sullivan & Leora N. Rosen (2022)
Harman and Lorandos’ false critique of Meier et al.’s family court study, Journal of Family Trauma,
Child Custody & Child Development, 19:2, 119-13

Auszug:
"We hope this rebuttal  clarifies the lack of  substance to Harman and  Lorandos (2021) critique,  while substantiating the  credibility of our  straightforward findings.  We are troubled that the  invocation of a “list of 30”  and use of the pejorative  term “woozling,”  accompanied by an array  of  technical jargon, can  combine to create a veneer  of seriousness, especially  when few if any readers can be expected to dig deeply enough to discern the  falsity of these claims.  Therefore, we urge readers  to review the Final Summary Overview and the peer-reviewed article about the  study, as well as our forthcoming articles, both  to resolve any lingering  doubts, and to learn critical  information about custody  court adjudications."

International Blue, Grant Wyeth, 14.11.2022: The Best Interest Of The Abuser

Ogolsky, Brian & Hardesty, Jennifer & Theisen, Jaclyn & Park, So & Maniotes, Christopher & Whittaker, Angela & Chong, Jia & Akinbode, Tanitoluwa. (2022). Parsing Through Public Records: When and How is Self-Reported Violence Documented and When Does it Influence Custody Outcomes?. Journal of Family Violence. 1-13. 10.1007/s10896-022-00401-w.

The Conversation, Joan Meier, 2.12.2021: Victims of domestic abuse find no haven in family courts 

USA II

Meier et.al., George Washingtown University Law School, 2019 

Child Custody Outcomes in Cases Involving Parental Alienation and Abuse Allegations

"These data powerfully affirm the reports from the field, that women who allege abuse - particularly child abuse - by a father are at significant risk (over 1 in 4) of losing custody to the alleged abuser. (Importantly, this rate applies even in cases where the fathers appear not to have claimed alienation to defeat the abuse claim.) Even when courts find that fathers have abused the children or the mother, they award them custody 14% of the time. In cases with credited child physical abuse claims, fathers win custody 19% of the time.
It is also notable that when mothers report mixed types of child abuse (sexual and physical) their custody losses skyrocket (from under 30% (39/135) up to 50%)(11/22)."


Joyanna Silberg & Stephanie Dallam (2019): Abusers gaining custody in family

courts: A case series of over turned decisions, Journal of Child Custody, 16:2, 140-169 


Kanada

Government of Canada: The Early Identification and Streaming  of Cases of High Conflict Separation and Divorce: A Review, Conclusions and Recommendations, 21.12.2022

Auszug:
 "A majority of studies conclude that maintaining a relationship with both parents following separation is an important factor in mitigating negative outcomes for children. However, studies also show that joint and shared parenting arrangements are often favoured by adults but not by children. A number of recent studies conclude that joint physical custody and equal access arrangements often result in increased conflict between parents, thus causing negative outcomes for children. These studies recommend more research into the long-term implications of joint custody arrangements."

Supreme Court, 20.5.2022:
Supreme Court says one incident of family violence may justify child’s relocation in divorce cases

Reasons for Judgement in Appeal,  2022 SCC 22, Case number 39533 


CBC News, 30.4.2022:

Domestic violence survivors say family courts are failing them 


Elizabeth Sheehy & Susan B. Boyd, 2020: Penalizing women’s fear: intimate partner violence and parental alienation in Canadian child custody cases, Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law, 42:1, 80-91

Simon Lapierre, Patrick Ladouceur, Michèle Frenette & Isabelle Côté, 2020: The legitimization and institutionalization of ‘parental alienation’ in the Province of Quebec, Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law, 42:1, 30-44 

CBC News, CBC Investigates

Kanada II

Family Court Review, Association of Family and Conciliation Court, 2017:
Shared Parenting in Canada: Increased Use But Continued Controversy

"The research also reveals real concerns about the negative effects of high parental conflict or violence, especially if there is shared custody. A legal resumption of equal shared time would most likely have an impact in the highest-conflict cases that are resolved in court, which are also the cases where this outcome raises the greatest concerns. Thus we do not support that type of legal presumption."

Birnbaum, Rachel & Poitras, Karine & Saini, Michael & Cyr, Francine & LeClair, Shawna. (2017). Shared Parenting in Canada: Increasing Use But Continued Controversy: Shared Parenting in Canada. Family Court Review. 55. 513-530. 10.1111/fcre.12301. 

Artikel:

Survivors of domestic abuse told to keep quiet about it in court or risk jeopardizing child custody

Martha Shaffer Professor & Nicholas Bala (2003): Wife Abuse, Child Custody and Access in Canada, Journal of Emotional Abuse, 3:3-4, 253-275, DOI: 10.1300/J135v03n03_05

USA

ProPublica, 26.2.2023: Barricaded Siblings Turn to TikTok While Defying Court Order to Return to Father They Say Abused Them 


Joan S. Meier, Sean Dickson, Chris S. O’Sullivan & Leora N. Rosen (2022)
Harman and Lorandos’ false critique of Meier et al.’s family court study, Journal of Family Trauma,
Child Custody & Child Development, 19:2, 119-13

Auszug:
"We hope this rebuttal  clarifies the lack of  substance to Harman and  Lorandos (2021) critique,  while substantiating the  credibility of our  straightforward findings.  We are troubled that the  invocation of a “list of 30”  and use of the pejorative  term “woozling,”  accompanied by an array  of  technical jargon, can  combine to create a veneer  of seriousness, especially  when few if any readers can be expected to dig deeply enough to discern the  falsity of these claims.  Therefore, we urge readers  to review the Final Summary Overview and the peer-reviewed article about the  study, as well as our forthcoming articles, both  to resolve any lingering  doubts, and to learn critical  information about custody  court adjudications."

International Blue, Grant Wyeth, 14.11.2022: The Best Interest Of The Abuser

The Conversation, Joan Meier, 2.12.2021: Victims of domestic abuse find no haven in family courts 


Meier et.al., George Washingtown University Law School, 2019 

Child Custody Outcomes in Cases Involving Parental Alienation and Abuse Allegations

"These data powerfully affirm the reports from the field, that women who allege abuse - particularly child abuse - by a father are at significant risk (over 1 in 4) of losing custody to the alleged abuser. (Importantly, this rate applies even in cases where the fathers appear not to have claimed alienation to defeat the abuse claim.) Even when courts find that fathers have abused the children or the mother, they award them custody 14% of the time. In cases with credited child physical abuse claims, fathers win custody 19% of the time.
It is also notable that when mothers report mixed types of child abuse (sexual and physical) their custody losses skyrocket (from under 30% (39/135) up to 50%)(11/22)."