|
|
||||||||||||
|
INJUSTICE |
||||||||||||
|
|
"....the District Court of Brugg - in its divorce act - also decided about custody, which would be - of course - a clear violation of Article 16 of the Convention." Carla Schmid of the Swiss Federal Office of Justice, Central Authority in Matters of International Child Abduction to Bill Fleming of the Department of State, U.S. Central Authority for the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction -- Feb. 3, 2000. "Imagine this nightmare: Your children have been abducted to another country. You turn to your local authorities; they cannot help. You turn to your state government; they cannot help. You turn to your federal government; they cannot help. You sit at home in an empty house, starring at pictures of your two sons who you may never see again and wonder why the woman who was once your wife could do anything so cruel, let alone illegal. But the nightmare only gets worse: the other country turns to your government and says, please help the person who abducted the children -- assist her in trying to obtain the assets of the boys' father. You laugh and think, there is no way that my government would assist a kidnapper and a foreign country that is sheltering her." *James G. Bertoli to the United State District Court, Northern District of California -- Aug. 30, 2000. (*James G. Bertoli is currently a Superior Court Judge in Sonoma County CA.) "The Court sympathizes with the respondent's plight, but does not believe that quashing the subpoena is the proper remedy under the statute and cases." "IT IS HEREBY RECOMMENDED that the district court honor the Letters Rogatory from the Brugg District Court" (Switzerland) "pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1782 and DENY Respondent's Motion to Quash Subpoena Duces Tecum." Elizabeth Laporte, United States Magistrate Judge, United States District Court, Northern District of California -- Oct. 12, 2000. If you think that it is unjust that the U.S. courts should honor treaties with other counties that condone the kidnapping of American children and that the criminal justice system should fail to support the left behind parent in America, please write your Senators and Congresspersons (and copy Nick Lampson, see links). Tell them that the U.S. should actively seek the return of American children that have been kidnapped to foreign counties and aggressively enforce the 1993 International Parental Kidnapping Crime Act. You can find your Senator's and Congressperson's e-mail address at the following website: |
