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Although Jamaica has adopted the Hague Abduction
Convention, its accession has not yet been accepted by the United States,
United Kingdom or Canada. Accordingly, the Convention is not in force between
Jamaica and these countries.
The Child Protection and Family Services Agency has
complained that the failure of these key countries to accept Jamaica’s
accession limits how much the agency can do to rectify cases where children
have been abducted and taken to foreign countries by a parent.
Speaking to Jamaica’s Gleaner newspaper, the agency’s
legal office, Nicole Chambers, said the agency has at least 15 child abduction
cases so far, but pointed out that this represents only a small fraction of
them. She said that it was frustrating to "to explain to persons that we
have domestic legislation in place, we have the court in place, we have a
designated Hague-approved judge, but you cannot make your application under the
convention because the country where your child is, that country has not
accepted Jamaica yet for us to make that application."
I have previously
explained some of the specific issues that result from Jamaica’s
state bringing the Convention into domestic law. These are:
·
The legislation empowers Jamaica’s Central
Authority to refuse an application whenever it decides that the application is
not well founded.
·
The legislation does not state how cases
are to be brought to court and does not explain the jurisdiction of the Court
if the Central Authority has determined that an application is not well
founded.
·
The legislation subordinates the Convention
to broad provisions in Jamaica’s Constitution, thereby authorizing or requiring
a refusal to return abducted children for far more extensive reasons than are
permitted by the Convention.
