A new transnational parental alienation? The criminalization of the abductor and the practice of States in international child abduction

Abstract

The article aims to study the criminal­ization of the parent involved in the internation­al abduction of children according to the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of Inter­national Child Abduction, presenting research on the use of the criminal instrument by States Parties to the Convention and its impacts on the functioning of the conventional procedure. For this, reports provided by the States were ana­lyzed, as well as technical documents prepared by both the Hague Conference on International Law and the Brazilian bodies in charge of apply­ing the treaty. Furthermore, an extensive survey of jurisprudence was used to analyze the central theme of the article. The conclusion is that crim­inalization does not contribute to the objectives of speeding up the return of the minor and pro­tecting his or her interests, as advocated by the convention, and therefore only contributes to the creation of a derivative transnational paren­tal alienation. Finally, it also presents a proposal for the Central Authority of the State to which the child has been taken to act to prevent the criminalization of the abducting parent, should he or she wish to accompany the returned child to the State of his or her habitual residence.