Special Rapporteur Report on Child Custody and Domestic Violence: Exercise in Exclusion and Bias

PRESS RELEASE

Contact: Rebecca Hain

Telephone: +1-513-479-3335

Special Rapporteur Report on Child Custody and Domestic Violence: Exercise in Exclusion and Bias

June 20, 2023 – Special Rapporteur Reem Alsalem has submitted a report, “Custody, Violence Against Women and Violence against Children” (A/HRC/53/36), to the U.N. Human Rights Council for consideration during the current session of the Council (1). Delegates who are expecting to see a balanced and thoughtful analysis of the child custody and domestic violence issues are likely to be disappointed.

Any discussion of domestic violence must begin with the well-established fact that men and women are equally likely to engage in domestic abuse (2). But inexplicably, the report does not mention or discuss this fact.

The report notes that the Special Rapporteur received over 1,000 submissions (Page 2). These included submissions from the following groups:

Alienated Children First (3)
Family Separation Clinic (4)
Foundation Vader Kennis Centrum (5)
Shared Parenting Scotland (6)
Igualdade Parental (7)

Unfortunately, all of these submissions were excluded from consideration by the Special Rapporteur.

For example, the 48-page submission by Alienated Children First (ACF) of Ireland includes a wealth of documentation on breaches of court orders, legal decisions, victims’ experiences, and more. The report concludes that ACF is “concerned at the gendered nature of language which excludes male victims of domestic violence,” and that “victims are very concerned at organisations who attempt to summarily dismiss the serious issue of this form of child abuse.”

The Domestic Abuse and Violence International Alliance concludes that the UN Special Rapporteur arbitrarily and unfairly excluded relevant and important perspectives, which serves to invalidate the report’s conclusions and recommendations (8).

The Human Rights Council must reject the Special Rapporteur’s deeply flawed report.

The Domestic Abuse and Violence International Alliance – DAVIA — consists of 91 member organizations from 33 countries in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, Latin America, and North America. DAVIA seeks to ensure that domestic violence and abuse polices are science-based, family-affirming, and gender-inclusive. https://endtodv.org/davia/

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