Japan signs up to the Hague Convention

Well it might start on April Fool's Day, but Japan has at long last signed up to the Hague Convention. Hopefully at last Japan will no longer be the butt of criticism that once a child is taken to Japan from another convention country it will never return.


Last Friday Japan ratified its signature with The Hague, with the convention due to take effect in Japan on 1 April 2014. Japan joins 89 other countries, including Australia, most of Europe, USA and New Zealand, in being a party to the Convention.


The Convention is the prime means to make children return to the country from which they were wrongfully removed or to the country to which they have been wrongfully retained, provided that both countries are parties to the Convention. The formal name for the Convention is the Hague Convention of 25 October 1980 on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction.


The effect of the Hague Convention is that a parent in one country can complain to his government as to the child abduction, which then remits the complaint to authorities in the second country. In the jargon the authorities in each country are called the Central Authority. The Central Authority in the second country typically applies to a court to have the child returned to the first country.


While Hague applications can be very technical applications to run or to defend, generally the children are sent home. Two key aspects of Hague applications are that the best interests of a child are not the paramount concern of the court (unlike other matters concerning children) - so there shouldn't be an endless pursuit of whether or not it is a good idea to send the child home; and it is presumed that authorities in the home country are able to protect the child.


The Convention was signed at The Hague in the Netherlands because that is where an international body of countries, the Hague Conference on Private International Law, is based.


The move by Japan is long overdue. Among Western countries, Japan has long been criticised for not signing the Hague Convention because of domestic beliefs that Japanese children ought to remain in Japan. This step while long overdue is welcome. Let's hope Japan is able to enforce the Hague Convention. Time will tell.

The appalling state of domestic violence in Pakistan

Or more correctly, the appalling state of the role of women in Pakistan.


First, the light at the end of the tunnel: one province, Punjab, has enacted domestic violence laws, and advocates are calling for the other provinces to do the same. Wonderful! The sooner the better.


However, little action seems to be forthcoming, and what is occurring is in circumstances that are terrible for the women in Pakistan. This is according to a report in the News International, a Pakistan online newspaper.


Let's start with comparatives. In Western countries such as Australia, it is commonly estimated that in a lifetime between 1/4 and 1/3 of women will be subjected to domestic violence from their partners- whether it be emotional abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse or some other form of abuse.


The figures from Pakistan are off the dial. According to Kanwal Qayyum from Rutgers WPF, an NGO specialising in reproductive rights, 85% of women suffered violence from their partners, or to put it another way only about 1 in 7 women didn't, and almost half or 47% of women copped violence from their partners during pregnancy.


Unbelievably it gets worse.


The perpetrators of violence are not only male partners. They extend to fathers (58%), mothers (32%), stepfathers (7%), and other male/female family members (24%), according to one speaker.


According to another expert, perpetrators of domestic violence are the husbands in 71% of cases, and mothers-in-law in almost 10% of cases.


But that's not all! A solid majority of women have been subject to both physical and sexual violence in the last year: 56.3% of women were subject to physical violence in the last year, 57.6% over a lifetime; and 53.4% of women were subject to sexual violence in the last year, 54.5% over a lifetime, according to Dr Tazeen Ali from Aga Khan University.


By comparison, the 2012 Personal Safety Survey by the Australian Bureau of Statistics says that 1.2% of Australian women were subjected to sexual violence in the last year and 4.6% were subjected to physical violence in the last year, and 20% for sexual violence and about 35% for physical violence over a lifetime.

A Christmas survival guide- by a divorce lawyer

Christmas is the best of times and the worst of times. For most of us, Christmas is the best of times- the time that we can spend with friends and family with joy. For some of us, Christmas is an agonising period when relationships end, and there is no contact with children or close family: a recipe for loneliness. Christmases spent that way are tough.  For family lawyers, Christmas often brings in many new clients who have split up over Christmas, or who argue about Christmas.

Here’s how to survive the agonies of Christmas:

1.  Don’t blow the credit card. There’s nothing worse in January when the bills come home to roost, and blame is flung about like manure in stables. Avoid, avoid! 
2.  Cool down. Getting hot and bothered at Christmas is a sure fire to start the fight to end all fights. Jump in the pool, get into air con, stand in front of a fan- do whatever you have to do to get cool. Don't remain overheated. 
3. Tolerate the in-laws. You would be amazed how many times dealing with an annoying relative at Christmas can be the straw that broke the camel’s back. Your father-in-law might be the ugliest man alive, but it might be best not to remind him of that in florid language. Aunty Eva might be an ugly witch- but to remind her of that, with grog and a few choice words thrown in, is a good recipe for spending many thousands of dollars on divorce lawyers. 
4.  Don’t drink too much. Dehydration, hangovers and lack of inhibition from drinking are a wonderful recipe to end a relationship. 
5.  Remember the kids. Arguments about kids at Christmas are usually pointless. The arguments are often bigger than the original point made- and almost always bounce back to hurt the kids.Make their interests the priority- not your ego. 
6. Take care with driving. Although it might be possible to drive straight from Brisbane to Mackay in one go, driving huge distances without rest and relaxation is not only stressful, but it could be deadly. 
7.  Plan ahead. If you know you are going to be alone at Christmas- take action to be with friends, or if you have money- travel. Why not? 
8.  Don’t do anything silly. It is easy to be depressed when alone and everyone else seems to be enjoying their time. Remember that you are loved and cherished. If in doubt, call Lifeline 13 11 14. 
9. There’s always next year. Planning your Christmas to the nth degree might be a good thing, but don’t stress if things don’t all go to plan. They usually don’t. The nuclear option at Christmas time is usually the worst. 
10.  Spare a thought for others. While you have been self-destructing, remember those who work through Christmas providing essential services. They have to get on with it, and help others.

How Google catches up with those who spam blogs

I am amazed at times about the number of people who try to take over my blogs, so that they get backlinks to their site- by trying to post "comments" to my posts.

Sometimes these are people promoting get rich schemes or surrogacy, or swingers parties of all things, sometimes to use Julia Gillard's words "nutjobs", and sometimes I am ashamed to say they are fellow lawyers. What a divorce blog in Australia has to do with injury lawyers in Canada for example who want to tout their wares is a mystery to me.

Most importantly, I don't allow others to spam my site.

I want to make it plain that I am not opposed to fellow lawyers (or anyone else for that matter) commenting on my blogs- provided they have something relevant to say, and they are not just trying to spam my blog with meaningless drivel that has no relevance to the post concerned, but just happens to say how wonderful they are and provides a convenient back link.

That behaviour simply won't be tolerated.

This issue came into stark relief this week when I was contacted by a fellow (Australian) lawyer who has in effect been black banned by Google because there are too many suspicious links leading to that lawyer's website. "Get rid of the links" he's been told, or the black ban remained. With the black ban in place his website has disappeared off Google into the pit of doom, never to be seen again until the problem is fixed. Yes, there are other search engines, such as Bing- but offend all conquering Google and watch out!

 That lawyer has asked me to remove his comments on my blog. I will do so. The irony? I didn't take his comments on my blog to be spam. I thought they were legitimate comment.

Riverfire 2013

I am very fortunate in my job that I get the ability to travel. I am often asked to present at conferences. This year alone I have presented in:

• Townsville- North Queensland Law Association conference
• Brisbane- Surrogacy Australia, surrogacy forum
• Sydney- Fertility Society of Australia conference, and surrogacy forum organised by Circle Surrogacy
• Melbourne- Surrogacy Australia conference; presentation for the Australian Psychological Association, family law and psychology interest group; surrogacy forum organised by Circle Surrogacy
• Anchorage, Alaska- American Bar Association, Family Law Section conference

I also travelled to San Francisco to attend a conference there and catch up with business colleagues in Los Angeles.

On the current state of the year I am to present in a week's time in Brisbane to the Australian Association of Social Workers, and then in November in Charleston, South Carolina (at the American Academy of Assisted Reproductive Technology Attorneys conference).

In my travels I take my trusted DSLR held together with tape and take lots of pictures. I have shared many of these with my friends and family on Facebook, but not on my blogs.

This morning it struck me as obvious that I should post some of these pics on my blogs.

Last night I was lucky enough to attend Riverfire in Brisbane, the annual fireworks spectacular. Just before the fireworks the International Space Station flew over, this tiny speck of light zipping past.

WAVSS: a domestic violence service 19 years later

Earlier this week, instead of attending my usual Action Network breakfast, I attended the breakfast and annual general meeting of WAVSS, the Working Against Violence Support Service. WAVSS is the domestic violence service in Logan.

The guest speaker was inspirational speaker Dr Shannon Spriggs from Griffith University, who talked about the Mentors in Violence Prevention, which I tweeted here. Her program works on the premise of teaching people who are used to being bystanders to take action, to help prevent, confront or interrupt violence and abuse. As Dr Spriggs said, violence by men to women in our society is a societal problem, and unless we, as members of society take action to end it, domestic violence will continue.

Dr Spriggs recognised that to end domestic violence, men need to be engaged. Domestic violence is not a women's problem.

What she said struck a chord for me- back to 1994. Back in 1994 I was one member (and the only male) of the original organising committee that set up WAVSS. Back then I was routinely the only man who volunteered my time with domestic violence committees. In addition to WAVSS I chaired the committee of the local domestic violence shelter, and helped out at the local domestic violence court service.

Incidentally, that service was started by an indomitable nun. She and I would argue whether she started the service in 1992 or 1993 (I maintained 1992, she maintained 1993). I got formally dragged on to her committee in 1999 and stayed there until this year. For most of those years I was the only man on that committee, too.

Back then WAVSS had  two full time counsellors and a part time admin worker. Now there are effectively 10 full time positions. In addition WAVSS has close links with the local council and partnerships, including with the local rugby team.

Part of me felt like a proud father- baby has grown up. These services were always underfunded, achieving results against the odds. However another part of me was filled with sadness. True the population of Logan and surrounding areas has grown enormously in the past 19 years. True women are now much more prepared to take action to end domestic violence, and there are systems in government to identify and end domestic and family violence. However, the fact remains that there are now 10 full time workers says to me that the age old problem of domestic violence is still with us, and will be with us for a long time to come. The problem has not gone away.

Which comes back to Dr Spriggs and her presentation. While she was talking it struck me that the theme of her talk was what 18th century politician Edmund Burke said:

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.

Unless we are all prepared to take action to be part of the solution to end domestic violence, we will all be to blame for the problem.


 

Courtrooms can continue the abusive process

It seems extraordinary, but nevertheless it is an every day event. Every day in courts throughout Australia, in the Family and Federal Magistrates Courts, victims of domestic violence come within metres of their attackers. Sometimes the allegations of domestic violence are denied by the other party, and sometimes they are admitted- but even when admitted that doesn't stop the victim and perpetrator coming within a few metres of each other, or even closer when walking in and out of the court room.

An order made in a State court that says there is to be no contact by the perpetrator with the survivor- for example "The respondent shall have no contact direct or indirect personal or otherwise with the aggrieved" or a distance clause that says, for example: "The respondent shall not come within 100 metres of the aggrieved" do not prevent them from being in the same courtroom, or walking within inches of each other going into and out of the court, or from the perpetrator staring or making furtive gestures at the survivor in the courtroom or in the foyer outside.

It seems at times as though what happens in the real world outside the courtroom, of bullying and abuse, could not possibly happen in the court room because of the aura of the court environment. The reality sadly sometimes is otherwise. However, the fear can be all too real for survivors of violence,  sometimes overwhelming them.

To make it worse, if a matter proceeds to trial the perpetrator of violence can cross-examine the survivor- and continue the abuse by other means. While there is the possibility of a screen or a video link for example separating victim and perpetrator, it is not mandatory to do so, and I for one do not know how often they are used. This process of cross-examination is worsened if the perpetrator is unrepresented, which will make the cross-examination of the perpetrator look and sound like a glorified abusive and controlling argument from home, transplanted into another building.

The ABC has picked up this issue in a great story broadcast on tonight's PM. The web version is here: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-04-08/cuts-to-legal-aid-see-accused-rapists-cross-examining-victims/4616784.