Families Across Borders | law, policy, news and views
Islamists and Moroccan Marriage Law
An article in the Washington Post discusses the controversy in Morocco sparked by the suicide last month of a teenager who was raped and then married off to the man who had raped her. The current law allows a rapist to avoid prosecution if he marries the vicitm.The story reports that although the current law sets the [...]
International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family
The December 2011 issue of the International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family is available online; articles include a very thought-provoking article by Peter Hayes on The Legality and Ethics of Independent Intercountry Adoption Under the Hague Convention, which argues against the movement to eliminate independent intercountry adoption under the 1993 Hague Adoption Convention. [...]
Concerns with Post-Earthquake Adoptions
In an article following up the airlift of 1150 children to the United States after the earthquake in Haiti last winter, Ginger Thompson reports in the New York Times that their adoptions “were expedited regardless of whether children were in peril, and without the screening required to make sure they had not been improperly separated from their [...]
ECHR Ruling in Hague Abduction Case
Here’s an item posted by Jeremy Morley on his blog discussing a recent ruling of the European Court of Human Rights in a case under the Hague Child Abduction Convention. In Neulinger and Shuruk v. Switzerland, the court reversed a return order, concluding that it violated the child’s rights under Article 8 of the European Convention of [...]
Hague Special Commission on Intercountry Adoption
The third Special Commission on the practical operation of the 1993 Intercountry Adoption Convention concluded in The Hague on June 25. Delegations from 88 countries and a variety of nongovernmental organizations devoted eight days to discussing these issues; I attended the meetings as an observer from the International Society of Family Law. The Commission adopted Conclusions and Recommendations that will [...]
State Department Issues 2010 Trafficking in Persons Report
Last week, the State Department issued its tenth annual Trafficking in Persons Report under the Trafficking Victim Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA). The TVPA defines “severe forms of trafficking” as either sex trafficking in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion (or in which the person induced to perform such an act [...]
New Efforts Target Child Agricultural Labor in U.S.
The Obama administration has increased enforcement efforts against illegal use of children as farm laborers. This article by Erik Eckholm in the New York Times describes the particulars of children and teenagers working in blueberry fields in North Carolina, as well as reform efforts under consideration in Congress: U.S. Cracks Down on Farmers Who Hire [...]
Child Soldiers in Somalia
Jeffrey Gettleman reports on the continuing use of child soldiers in the conflict in Somalia, noting that they are also used and recruited by the Transitional Federal Government, which is supported by the United States. See Children Carry Guns for a U.S. Ally, Somalia. The article states that the U.S. and Somalia have not ratified [...]
Child Brides in Afghanistan
The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission has released videotapes showing public beatings of two Afghan girls, ages 13 and 14, who had attempted to flee from illegal forced marriage. See this article by Rod Nordland and Alissa J. Rubin, Afghan Child Brides Escape Marriage, but Not Lashes (New York Times, May 30, 2010); one of the videos [...]
Supreme Court Takes New Gender/Citizenship Case
The Supreme Court has granted certiorari in a case challenging citizenship laws that treat the nonmarital children of US citizen mothers and fathers differently. The case, Flores-Villar v. United States, 536 F.3d 990 (9th Cir. 2009) (Supreme Court docket no. 09-5801) poses an equal protection issue similar to the one in Nguyen v. I.N.S., 533 U.S. 53 (2001). Nguyen concerned the nonmarital [...]
