ISS Australia assists families who are separated across international borders and cover areas like kinship care assessments and issues in relation to international adoption, as well as do international family mediation.

“Our community legal centre specialises in international parental child abduction. We’ve been working in that field since 2012. And essentially, the purpose of our service is to provide people, who are affected by international parental child abduction, or IPCA for short, by either giving them advice depending on what their circumstances require,” Ms Chapman said.

“And, if they do have children that have been abducted to Hague Convention countries, or they’re seeking access to children in Hague Convention countries, then we can assist those parents put together applications for their child’s return or for access.”

Generally speaking, IPCA is a situation wherein one parent takes a child, or children, overseas without the permission of the other parent or without court order that allows them to do so, according to Ms Chapman, who said that “it’s a really challenging area to fully understand the extent of the problem.”

“You can track how many applications are made under the 1980 Hague Convention, and the Commonwealth Attorney-General’s Department keeps those statistics. It’s probably between, say, 100 to 150 applications each year,” she said.

“The problem though is much bigger than that because there are, of course, abductions to non-Hague Convention countries, and we can’t know how many of those occur. And there are also abductions where, certainly an abduction has occurred, but the parent who’s left behind in Australia might not wish to pursue their return.”

This means that lawyers working in this space need to be across both family law and international law – and Ms Chapman added that additionally, “there can be a lot of different issues that feed into these kinds of matters.”

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“There can be questions around immigration. There can be questions around family violence and family violence laws. I think what’s really important is to be able to identify that that’s the main thing,” she said.

“You need to be able to identify where those other issues arise, so that you can ensure that the client that you are supporting can get to the right places to get any ancillary associated advice that they need.”

The issues have only been impacted by the pandemic, Ms Chapman continued.

“From time to time, throughout the pandemic, there have been court closures, and that’s had a real impact on the progress of clients’ matters through the overseas systems, particularly in relation to how long. I think with the 1980 Hague Convention, there’s a real emphasis on doing things promptly, and court closures had a big impact on how prompt matters can be dealt with.

“Travel restrictions have affected the actual return of children. So, where parents might receive a return order in an overseas country, that hasn’t necessarily been able to occur promptly because travel restrictions have been in place,” she said.

“Where I particularly notice the impact on clients is around their concern for the safety of their children and that adding more stress. They want to have their children home, but they are also conscious of the risks of international travel. And I think that tension has made it a lot harder for applicant parents than it has been.”

To deal with heightened client tensions and generally complex issues, Ms Chapman said lawyers in this space need to have a few specific skills: client management skills and communication skills being top of the list.

“I think you need to be able to communicate really complex issues. Some of the issues that we are dealing with are the aspects of the Hague Convention issues like habitual residents, for example, and really complex issues of questions of international law,” she said.

“And so, you need to be able to clearly communicate, in plain English, really complicated matters to parents who are very distressed. So, I think, really being able to have good skills in managing clients, managing clients who are distressed and being able to clearly communicate is really non-negotiable.

“We’re also preparing all the documents that will be tendered in court in those overseas proceedings. You have to be able to clearly and persuasively communicate your client’s position, and their case, in writing. So, you need to have really strong drafting skills,” Ms Chapman added.

Post-pandemic, Ms Chapman said that while she can’t see a lot of changes to legislation – as the 1980 Hague Convention is incorporated into Australian law – she does think there will be an increase in cases.

“When the pandemic is over, I expect that we’ll see a big increase in cases, and particularly in cases where people have been overseas for quite some time with permission, but on the understanding that they will return,” she said.

“More generally, in the future, there will be an increase of international parental child abduction. As we see the global movement of people increase, as we see immigration increase, I think we can expect to see this become a bigger issue over time.”

The transcript of this podcast episode was slightly edited for publishing purposes. To listen to the full conversation with Rebecca Chapman, click below: