Children suffer greatly from the breakdown in family relationships. Their distress can be made immeasurably worse if they find themselves caught in bitter and contentious custody disputes between parents of different nationalities. Too often these children will be abducted to another country by one of their parents.

• PACT’s documentary on the long term effects of parental abduction on children.
   
• “Parental child abduction is a form of child abuse” (Report by Nancy Faulkner, Ph.D)
   
• Children locked in high conflict cases are especially vulnerable to parental alienation: that is, the systematic indoctrination of the child by one parent against the other.
   
• A fully alienated child will become the “spokesman” for the abducting parent. Read The Cult of Parenthood: A Qualitative Study of Parental Alienation by Amy J. L. Baker, Ph.D. 
  
  Additional Websites:
  www.parental-alienation-awareness.com
  www.parental-alienation.info
   
• This is particularly relevant when young children are asked to participate in court proceedings and express their “wishes”.

	Article 13(b) of the Hague Convention Treaty: “Does it create a Loophole” by Barbara Sobal and William Hilton (PDF, Acrobat Reader required)

The Effect on the Child