Just found this article. Don't remember seeing it previously posted.
Conheça outros brasileiros envolvidos em disputas internacionais pela guarda dos filhos
http://revistaepoca.globo.com/Revista/Epoca/1,,EMI63179-15227,00.htmlGoogle Translation:
Meet other Brazilians involved in international disputes for the custody of the children March 6, 2009
The case of the boy Sean brought to light a growing problem - the battles, often painful, between the Brazilian and foreign couples to decide in which country the child should be.
In his home in Houston, Texas, the American Robert Pate assists in the television interview in which Secretary of State of the United States, Hillary Clinton, collecting the return of the Brazilian American Sean boy of 8 years. Sean quoted Hillary as an example of a global problem and compared the Cuban boy Elián González, who returned to Havana in June 2000, after a long battle between the courts of the United States and Cuba - his mother died trying to flee the island and the father , who was in Cuba, wanted the back. Hillary said in the interview that there are another 46 similar cases of disputes between children in the United States and Brazil.
On hearing this, Pate says he is thrilled: "It is my Nicole." The drama of the battle between the judiciary and Goldman families Bianchi won international visibility. But it is just one of hundreds they run silently in the courts of Brazil and abroad. According to research on the 2003 Hague Convention - the international agreement that deals with cases of gender - the U.S. came to 169 requests for repatriation, the largest number in the world. The United States also received 286 requests for return to other countries, an increase of 13% compared to the previous search. In situations involving non-signatories of the Convention, as Saudi Arabia and Lebanon, the international imbroglio could be much worse, because children are abducted and there is considered international instruments to which parents can reclaim them.
Sean and Nicole are in these statistics. EPOCH had access to some international cases that are confidential. This report included only those cases in which it had access to both sides of the issue, the father and the mother, and official documents.
Nicole of 7 years, now lives with his mother in Manaus, the Amazon Monica Dutra, 32 years, purchasing manager. Monica met the father of Nicole, the American Robert Martin Pate, of 46 in Manaus. The two girlfriend for some time and Mônica pregnant. Nicole was born in the capital of Amazonas. When she was six months, in April 2001, parents moved to Houston in the U.S. state of Texas, where he married. Three years later, the marital problems have worsened and Monica asked the separation. In it, Robert has never accepted this solution. "You will pay the price of divorce," he had said at the time. Robert, in turn, says that Monica is not used to the American way of life "without working without nanny. She denies. In the United States, was under guard Nicole shared and received regular visits of the father. Monica noted that under the laws of Texas (in the U.S. custody of the law varies from state to state), she was forced to live only in the metropolitan area of Houston. Monica says that after the separation, he missed the family and wanted to return to Brazil. When his father had a cancer, decided to return to duty. He said that to Robert, but he did not accept. So she went with Nicole with a permit for it to pass some days in Manaus.
The two most not returned to Houston. Robert came to court with an American, which considered the case as "abduction of minor." Monica says that it never received legal notices on a process. It also says that Robert never stopped to see Nicole and her family that offered to logistical and financial support to visit the girl. Robert came to an action in court to get the Brazilian custody of their daughter and lost. Today, they both are tired with the legal disputes. In April, Robert and Monica must be in Brazil to try to find an amicable agreement.
Almost all the stories begin to count the fairies and terrible fights end in court
The wars the custody of a child beyond the cold numbers. They represent the pain of hundreds of families, both on the mother's side as the father, and can directly affect the emotional state of the principal involved, the child. This not to mention the exorbitant amount that parents spend with family and lawyers fees from local and international. Almost all of these stories have in common Brazilian novels that begin like fairy tales and ends in ferrenhas disputes in international tribunals, some reaching the dispute diplomatically, such as the boy Sean. The most common are those of Brazilian married to foreigners who are living outside the country and after the separation, for different reasons, want to return to the country with their children. At the time of return, the question arises: who should stay with the child? According to the Hague Convention, of which Brazil is a signatory, as regards the abduction of children, a child may leave or remain in a country with the consent of the holders of the right of custody.
The Convention, like any other legal document, it is well-intentioned: seeks the welfare of the child. The problem is their interpretation. One of the most controversial items is that the holder loses custody of the custody case between the case a year after the "abduction". To discuss the call, hang other issues. How are the visits when it comes to catching a plane to see the child? How are disputes on property?
Since the beginning of 2008, the boy Aagesen Lucas is at the center of a fierce fight between his Brazilian mother, the psychologist Roberta Santalucia, and his father, the economist and public official Danish Soren Aagesen. While playing for the house you live in Atibaia (a city 65 kilometers from São Paulo), the Brazilian boy of 3 years is the center of a legal battle inferniza that the lives of their parents. The couple decided to break again in May 2008, when Roberta and Lucas got left home to Soren in Malmö, Sweden, to the Brazil. What followed was a trip to the flood of suits filed by Soren and a decision has perplexed Roberta: The Swedish Justice described the return of Luke as "serious crime" and ordered the arrest of Brazil. She is now part of a list of Interpol, and may even be arrested if out of Brazil.
What was the crime committed by the mother of Luke? To judge by the definitions of the Hague Convention, invoked by Swedish prosecutors, Roberta abducted child himself when left Sweden without the consent of the father of the boy. This is the argument of Soren. Luke's mother has another version. "I would not leave Sweden without following all the guidelines of the Brazilian embassy," said Roberta. She noted that only returned to Brazil because the very Soren signed an official document of the Brazilian Embassy authorizing the return of the child. She had obtained the temporary custody of Lucas in the Brazilian Justice. Roberta's defense says the Swedish Justice ignored the documents and that the decision to arrest it is an affront to the sovereignty of the Brazilian laws. The process to determine the custody of Lucas runs in final secret of Justice and has dragged on several fronts, in Brazil and Sweden. But as in the case of Monica and Michelle, this story lives the same asymmetry: depending on the country, Roberta can be found guilty or innocent. In Sweden, his arrest remains valid. In Brazil, it has the temporary custody of the child and was cleared for the crime of kidnapping described in the Hague Convention. A measure of search and seizure of Lucas came to be authorized, but other decision of Justice annulled the federal action.
An important issue considered by the judges is how the child is living at the court decision. Even after years of disputes, it is generally adapted to a home. Once established links with a family and a country, it becomes more difficult to withdraw it from there - even more when the father visits the other are rare, which is common. The Brazilian families interviewed always ensure that children have access to the former spouse to visit. Goldman Americans and Pate said that the time had not come to Brazil for having been guided by their lawyers not to fall into a "legal ambush." This would mean that if the father presence was characterized as "constant", maybe they lose the chance that their cases were tried in their own countries.
But what ultimately is at stake? It is not the welfare of these boys and girls? To complicate further, each side relies on different resolutions of the courts of each country. In Europe, to alleviate this conflict judiciary, was established in the European Parliament only a mediating body to handle these cases. The best solution, as I said the Hague Convention, is one that includes the child, not the wishes of parents. Often, that furious war, it is forgotten.
Robert Pate in the old picture with Nicole. He expects an amicable solution to the dispute with Monica
Monica Dutra, with her daughter Nicole. She left the U.S. with temporary permission. The father, the American Robert, wants his daughter back
LEGAL BATTLE: Luke, 3 years in the lap of her mother, Roberta. The Swedish Justice ordered the imprisonment of the Brazilian
