The Impacts on the Lives of Women and Children Who Have Experienced Domestic and Family Violence and Been Subject to the Hague Convention Legal Process

Abstract

This thesis responds to the research question: ‘What are the impacts on the lives of women and children who have experienced domestic and family violence and then been subject to the Hague Convention legal process? To answer this question, I conducted a feminist-informed qualitative study that analysed the experience of ten mothers who had endured long-term domestic and family violence from their intimate partners, who then faced further abuse because of the legal process of the 1980 Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction (the ‘Hague Convention’ or the ‘Convention’). The women’s experience with the powers deployed against them by countries who are signatories to the Hague Convention, when fulfilling their treaty obligations, irrevocably altered their lives. Furthermore, in their post-Hague Convention lives, the women continued to be subjected to further abuse from their ex-partners in various ways. Despite the trauma they endured, the women with whom I spoke were eager to participate in order to have their voices heard and their experiences documented, so that changes could be made to better protect women and children who face the Hague Convention. This thesis draws upon feminist legal scholarship and research that prioritises the voice and experience of women as purposeful and meaningful legal subjects. Because of the women’s narrated experiences of domestic and family violence, which caused them to flee across international borders with their children; the abuse they suffered due to the Hague Convention legal process; the systems abuse perpetrated by their ex-partners; then the abuse they suffered in their post-Hague lives, I argue that the Hague Convention produces detrimental and discriminatory outcomes for domestic and family violence survivors, who become unwitting and unwilling victims of the Hague Convention. Chapter 1 provides a brief introduction and chapter summaries. Chapter 2 presents a description of the Hague Convention, its implementation and interpretation. It begins with an overview of the Convention, including its history and objectives. I then examine Australia’s approach to implementing the Hague Convention, particularly how Australian judges with Hague jurisdiction strictly interpret and apply the Convention. Finally, I contrast Australia’s strict approach to implementing the Hague Convention, especially in the context of women fleeing jurisdictions due to domestic and family violence, with the approach taken by some other jurisdictions that are signatories to the Hague Convention. Chapter 3 discusses my methodology, beginning with a general discussion of feminist legal research methods. It then describes my research journey, including the ethics procedures undertaken, the recruitment processes used and style of interviews I conducted. The interviews collected during my fieldwork were transcribed and generated the women’s stories of their experiences of domestic and family violence, their eventual escape with their children, facing the Hague Convention and their lives following the Hague legal process. I analysed their stories, which are discussed in Chapters 4, 5 and 6. These three chapters individually explore three stages of abuse that the women described experiencing: (1) during their intimate relationship; (2) because of the power of the Hague Convention; and (3) in their post-Hague Convention life. The literature relevant to each of these stages has been integrated into each findings chapter and woven together with the women’s quotations which were taken from their transcripts. Chapter 4 explores the women’s experience of domestic and family violence perpetrated by their ex-partners. The women’s stories show that they and their children endured financial, emotional, psychological, physical and sexual abuse for several years before they fled their homes.Chapter 5 describes the women’s experience of domestic and family violence, which they suffered because of the Hague Convention’s rigid legal process. I examine the abuse perpetrated by the legal authorities whose role it is to administer the Hague Convention. I also discuss how the ex-partners of the women could perpetrate legal systems abuse against the women by using the Hague Convention to force them to return their children and also as a threat against the women. Chapter 6 focuses on a salient revelation the women made that has not previously been explored in mainstream Hague Convention literature. The women revealed how they continued to experience various different types of abuse after they returned with their children to the place from which they had previously fled when: (1) they had lost a Hague Convention case brought against them; or (2) they had been subjected to legal systems abuse – that is, their ex-partners had threatened to use the Hague Convention against them if they did not return the children immediately. Chapter 7 concludes that the women I interviewed are victims of traumatic and long-term abuse, and that there were no clear endings to the stages for them. In fact, the stages overlap each other and continue to seriously impact the women’s lives. This chapter ends with recommendations to address the trauma that flows from these circumstances.