Higgins crusader in ‘Hague’ campaign to help women

The woman who led the 2021 march for justice outside parliament, Janine Hendry, has called on Labor to change laws used against women fleeing domestic violence with their children.

Janine Hendry is urging the Australian government to take a global lead in changing The Hague Convention. Picture: Sean Foster/Getty Images

The woman who led the march for justice outside parliament in 2021, Janine Hendry, has called on Labor to show global leadership and change laws being used against women fleeing domestic violence with their children.

Ms Hendry, who sparked the marches across the country following Brittany Higgins’ allegations she was raped in parliament, revealed to The Australian she was now a spokeswoman for Her Hague Story – a group of women trying to change an international law created in the 1980s known as The Hague Convention.

The man accused of Ms Higgins’ assault has pleaded not guilty.

The convention was designed after an American woman had her children taken and kept from her by their father in Lebanon. When ­invoked, the law orders the children to be sent back to their countries of origin. But the law is now frequently being used by abusers to force mothers fleeing overseas with their children to return them to their violent partner and, more often than not, return with them.

Ms Hendry said Australia’s strict adherence to The Hague Convention without taking into account domestic violence was responsible for “a whole new layer of gendered violence” that was endangering women around the world.

“Many women have returned home (to Australia) following abuse in the hope of finding some sanctuary, but then they are being effectively repatriated back to countries and their abusers,” she said.

“I agreed to come on board as their spokeswoman because all of the women … facing The Hague Convention being used against them are gagged by the courts, which is an added level of complexity because they can't even talk about their stories.”

In 2009, a woman fleeing to Australia from Britain with her two sons to escape a violent relationship was forced by the courts to return her sons to the UK. The 24-year-old returned with her sons and was killed soon after by the boys’ father.

Ms Hendry said she was concerned such a tragedy could happen again if Labor did not intervene.

“It would send a really important message to the world that as Australians we do not tolerate gendered abuse,” Ms Hendry said.