Family Law: Relocation and the Case for Reform (November 2010)

Presented at the Palace of Westminster on 9th November 2010. You can also download our Westminster speech, or read it on your smartphone.

To download our report, click on the image to the left. This report explains why the courts are failing children, why the law needs to change, and includes our recommendations for legal reform.

Also speaking at the Westminster seminar on 'Rethinking Relocation: Child Welfare and Family Law Reform' were Professor Marilyn Freeman of Reunite and Ann Thomas, Managing Partner of the International Family Law Group. The event was kindly chaired by Dr Samantha Callan of the Centre for Social Justice, hosted by Heather Wheeler MP and organised by the charity Families Need Fathers.

'Moving country but losing the child: Reform and Resolution of Child Relocation Law and Practice'. Ann Thomas, Managing Partner of the International Family Law Group.

Ann Thomas is one of the UK's most respected international law practitioners. guardians who have had a child abducted or who fear child abduction. She is a past chair of the International Committee and a past member of the London Regional Committee of Resolution (formerly known as SFLA). Ann is former chair of the Family Law Steering group of LawNet and former President and founder of the Eurojuris International Family Lawyers Practice Group whose headquarters are in Brussels. She is a member of The International Bar Association and the Institute of Directors.

Extract 'How can we, in the English legal profession, have gone so wrong, have failed so many children, have inadvertently engaged in gender discrimination almost 2 generations, have fallen so out of step with many other countries and, most of all, failed to acknowledge trends in parenting patterns, especially in international families, over the past 40 years? The time has passed for tinkering around the edges of our law, of political deferences to legal precedents, awaiting for the Supreme Court to find a suitable test case and hoping international conventions will come to our aid. As Prof Marilyn Freeman has shown in her studies, as confirmed by those of Professors Patrick Parkinson and Judy Cashmore from the University of Sydney, the size of the problem is large and will only grow. The costs of the relocation litigation, costs of travel for contact in the cost to the lives of children demand a cost-effective solution.''

'Relocation and Leave to Remove - Parliamentary Briefing Report' published December 2009 by The Custody Minefield.

Our own report on Leave to Remove and the need to reform family law to better consider and secure child welfare. Foreword by Sir Bob Geldof. This report was published to assist in informing Members of Parliament of why reform was needed, and was in support of Early Day Motion 373, tabled by David Maclean similarly calling for reform, and currently signed by 58 MPs

In 2008, The Custody Minefield started a campaign to change the law to reduce the obstacles that Grandparents face when attempting to maintain a relationship with their grandchildren. It is estimated that 1million grandchildren are denied such a relationship. We were joined by The Grandparents Association, Grandparents As Parents (GAP), Grandparents Apart, The Grandparents Action Group UK, Families Need Fathers, Jewish Unity for Multiple Parenting (JUMP) and Mothers Apart from Their Children (MATCH). An Early Day Motion (EDM1199) was tabled in Parliament in support.

The Campaign started with a petition on the Prime Minister's Website, and followed with a response to the PM's inadequate reply which gained the support of 53 Members of Parliament in 2008. You can read our report by clicking on the cover image. 

The Campaign was carried on by the Grandparents Association and Families Need Fathers, who attended a meeting in Westminster on 18th May 2009 along with Professor Fiona Brooks and Dr Cliff Hill from the Family Matters Institute, Professor Ann Buchannan from Oxford University and which was hosted by Steward Jackson MP.