By Jenny Noyes
The distraught mother of a First Nations girl says the child’s human rights were “hugely violated” after she was forcibly flown out of Australia on Christmas Day under international law to live with her father in Europe.
The woman, who is Indigenous and from NSW, is hoping the Australian government will intervene on her behalf as she prepares to launch an international legal bid to have her daughter returned to Australia.
The woman lost her bid to keep her daughter in Australia last month. Credit: A Current Affair
The woman claims she was in an abusive relationship with the girl’s father, which escalated after the child was born in Europe – an allegation he vehemently denies. For legal reasons, names and other details that could identify those involved cannot be published.
The woman claims she was “pressured” by her then partner to fly to Europe while she was pregnant in 2019. Despite planning to return to Australia to give birth, she claims she was unable to do so due to medical complications of her pregnancy and alleged abuse that she says escalated when she bought her airline ticket.
Some time later, she did return to Australia with the baby, prompting the girl’s father to apply for the child to be returned to him in Europe under The Hague Convention, an international law that gives parents or eligible carers rights over children taken unlawfully across international borders.
Last month, the woman lost a bid to have her daughter remain with her, and on Sunday the girl was flown out of Australia after her father collected her.
The distraught woman said her daughter had been “ripped” from a life surrounded by family and community. Credit: Janie Barrett
The woman said the child’s human rights had been “hugely violated throughout the whole process”.
She said she does not regret bringing her daughter to Australia, but she believes women should be warned about the giving birth overseas.
“There should be warning signs at the airports. All the embassies should know about The Hague Convention. They should be warning mothers ... don’t give birth in a foreign country.”
The toddler had been “really excited about Santa” and was robbed of Christmas by the ordeal, the woman said. She had “a thriving life in Australia surrounded by community and friends” that has been “ripped” from her.
The woman’s allegations of abuse resulted in an Apprehended Domestic Violence Order being made after the girl’s father arrived in Australia. He has not been charged with any offences.
On December 12, Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus announced a legal amendment to make clear that allegations of family and domestic violence can be considered before return orders are made for children under The Hague Convention. However, the changes were not retrospective.
The woman said she had exhausted her financial means and now had supporters crowdfunding to pay for a legal fight in Europe; but she wants the Australian government to intervene, and believes there are grounds for it to do so due to the child’s First Nations status.
However, a spokeswoman for Dreyfus said there were “no legal grounds” for his intervention in the case, and that “as a matter of long-standing practice, it is not appropriate to comment on [cases of this kind]”.
The spokeswoman said the amendments the government made to the law this month “demonstrate the Albanese government’s commitment to an effective, accessible, fair and safe family law system that supports victim-survivors of family and domestic violence”.
Gina Masterton, Indigenous Australian postdoctoral research fellow at the QUT Centre for Justice, said the amendment was little more than a “Band-Aid”, although she gave the government some credit for taking a step towards recognising alleged domestic violence as worthy of consideration.
However, she said it “still doesn’t force judges to really seriously consider it”.
Masterton was the lead author on a research paper published by the QUT Centre for Justice in May on how The Hague Convention, which Australia signed six years after it came into effect in 1980, has been increasingly deployed by domestic violence perpetrators.
“This law was never meant to be applied to circumstances where women were escaping abuse ... and it never should be,” she said.
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