The webinar ‘International Family Mediation in Child Abduction - A Dialogue That Matters’, organized by the Law and Internet Foundation under the iCare2 project, brought together 55 participants. The speakers, Prof. Dr. Daniela Ilieva and Attorney Yordanka Bekirska, discussed how international family mediation works in practice and how to put the best interests of the child at the center of decision-making. This post shares 5 interesting insights shared during the iCare2 webinar.
- Specialist organisations provide support to families
Did you know that in cases of international child abduction, families can often benefit from organisations which combine legal expertise with practical and emotional support?
- Reunite International (the UK) runs the only telephone advice line in the UK dedicated to international parental child abduction and related cross-border child disputes and also offers a specialist mediation service.
- MiKK e.V. (Germany) provides a free and multilingual pre-mediation service from all over the world and organizes bilingual and bi-cultural mediations worldwide also in cases of international child abduction.
- Judges cooperate through an international judicial network
Did you know that judges dealing with Hague child abduction cases can cooperate through a dedicated international network?
The International Network of Hague Judges (IHNJ) connects judges from around the world dealing with Hague Convention cases, facilitating faster and more coordinated handling of cross-border cases. A key benefit is that the IHNJ maintains direct judicial communication (with safeguards) so that courts can clarify procedural issues across borders in specific cases, which then helps reduce delays.
- Co- mediation
Did you know that many cross-border mediations use bi-national co-mediation to better deal with culture, language, and cross- border conflicts?
A widely recognised approach enshrined in the Wroclaw Declaration 2007, used for example by MiKK and also by Attorney Yordanka Bekirska speaker in the webinar, is the 4B mediation model, where the team of co- mediators is:
- Bi-lingual (parents can speak in their strongest language),
- Bi-cultural (cultural understanding on both sides),
- Bi-professional (often one mediator with legal experience and one with psychosocial experience),
- Bi- gender (the team reflects gender balance).
- In Bulgaria, judges can still encourage mediation, even when it is not ‘mandatory’
Did you know that the mandatory mediation information meeting mechanism in Bulgaria only applies to specific categories of cases specified in the law and Hague return procedures are not explicitly listed among them?
According to Art. 140a of the Bulgarian Civil Procedure Code, courts can oblige parties to attend a mediation information meeting in listed types of cases (including certain family disputes such as divorce and parental responsibility disputes), but the list does not specifically international child abduction cases.
Nonetheless, even when the ‘mandatory informational meeting’ framework does not apply, judges can still actively encourage parties to consider mediation when it is appropriate, according to Article 140a (4) of the Bulgarian Civil Procedure Code.
- International child abduction can have long-term psychological effects on children
Did you know that there is a growing body of academic research looking at the psychological impact of international child abduction on children?
Research highlights how sudden relocation, separation from one parent and exposure to prolonged conflict and complex legal disputes can lead to significant emotional distress and can have effects that last long after the court case has ended. For more details on the matter please see: Parental child abduction: the long-term effects (by Prof. Marilyn Freeman), and Ghosts in our genes: Psychological issues in child abduction and high conflict cases (by Sarah Calvert).
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