Custody Peace

We wonder what the outcome would’ve been the if Palestinian children were prioritized above celebrity endorsements. We wonder if their human rights were prioritized, the human rights of all wouldn’t now be compromised. — We’ll never know, but what we do know is standing up for women, children, and human rights halfway never truly wins. Human rights only matter when they are applied to everyone. — May this outcome continue to awaken — May we collectively inspire and witness more #institutionalcourage in the coming years. May the collective community building, solidarity, care and work towards the human rights and liberation of ALL continue. 💜

"#Coercivecontrol is almost the most frightening bit of domestic abuse. You meet somebody, you think they’re wonderful, attractive, and love you, and then bit by bit they start to undermine you," says Queen Camilla. "They take away your friends, they take away your family. They take control of your money. They start dressing you. And yet all the time I suppose people still believe they’re doing it because they love them," she says in the documentary, to be screened later this month. One of the survivors of domestic abuse, who meets the Queen, talks of the "invisible chains" that stop people escaping, particularly when they have children. "If we could just get more people discussing it..." she says, as she highlights how abuse can mean psychological manipulation as well as physical attacks. https://lnkd.in/gUZchBeY

Impunity equals escalation 100% of the time. Every moment that goes by that we don’t protect Palestinian children, we make the world less safe for all children. "But make no mistake, what happens in Palestine will not remain confined to Palestine. Perpetrators of violence against women and children have taken note of the absolute impunity with which Israel has been able to carry out its crimes - day in and day out, in broad daylight, for all to see, using the most sophisticated weapons." - Reem Alsalem When you ignore the macro, the micro only gets worse. You can’t ever expect family violence, child abuse or violence against women to end if you normalize silence and inaction in the face of a live-streamed genocide. What we collectively accept will persist - and escalates 100% of the time in the face of silence. The question is, what are you protecting if it's not all children?

A new short film from Women's Aid & LADbible Group to to help everyone spot the red flags of #coercivecontrol and abusive behaviour. https://lnkd.in/eEnmzNxM

"Common to the gendered use of parental alienation is the depiction of mothers as vengeful and delusional by their partners, courts and expert witnesses. Mothers who oppose or seek to restrict contact or raise concerns are widely regarded by evaluators as obstructive or malicious, reflecting the pervasive pattern of blaming the mother." “The consequences of biased custody decisions can be catastrophic, resulting in specific incidents when contact has been awarded to fathers with a violent history, in the death of children and women and children being placed at gunpoint. In some cases, women have been imprisoned for violating custodial rights and protective restraining orders have been overturned.” - Custody, violence against women and violence against children report by Reem Alsalem UNSR Violence Against Women and Girls, Published April 13, 2023 and Presented to the UNHRC on June 23, 2023 https://lnkd.in/e7iN-Btg #FamilyCourtAwarenessMonth #DARVO

The current system requires you to pay (and in many cases, go into massive debt) to have #humanrights. Also see: Family Court and Perpetrator Induced Trauma (CPIT) Research via Shera Research Group https://lnkd.in/ez2aiEWQ November is #FamilyCourtAwarenessMonth #FCAM

Human rights only matter if they apply to everyone. International Law only matters if it applies to everyone.

The lack of accountability by the courts has an emboldening effect on Vexatious Litigants, which empowers perpetrators, resulting in an escalation of their abuse post-separation (which not only impacts the victim-survivor, but also the community and society at large). When there is no accountability for their vexatious behavior (aka continued abuse), then it proves to the perpetrator their use of the system as a means of power & control works (aka continued abuse) — and they keep coming back to the well to feed this need to power over their victim, and in most cases the courts allow them to drink freely at their leisure, making the world less safe for everyone. Source: They will use the systems intended to protect you, to control you, Custody Peace on Medium (July 23, 2022) Also see: Institutional Betrayal "The term institutional betrayal (Smith and Freyd, 2014) builds on the conceptual framework of betrayal trauma theory (see Freyd, 1996) to describe the ways that institutions fail to take appropriate steps to prevent and/or respond appropriately to interpersonal trauma." Source: Christl ME, Pham KT, Rosenthal A, DePrince AP. When Institutions Harm Those Who Depend on Them: A Scoping Review of Institutional Betrayal. Trauma Violence Abuse. 2024 Oct;25(4):2797-2813. doi: 10.1177/15248380241226627. Epub 2024 Jan 22. PMID: 38258307.

This present report of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, its causes and consequences, Reem Alsalem, was submitted to the Human Rights Council pursuant to resolution 50/7. The report addresses the link between custody cases, violence against women and violence against children, with a focus on the abuse of the term “parental alienation” and similar pseudo-concepts. "The report demonstrates how the discredited and unscientific pseudo-concept of parental alienation is used in family law proceedings by abusers as a tool to continue their abuse and coercion and to undermine and discredit allegations of domestic violence made by mothers who are trying to keep their children safe. It also shows how the standard of the best interest of the child is violated by imposing contact between a child and one or both parents and by prioritizing it, even where there is evidence of domestic violence. Predominantly as a result of the lack of training and gender bias and of access to legal support, the custody of children may be awarded to perpetrators of violence, despite evidence of a history of domestic and/or sexual abuse. The risks of such consequences are compounded for women from marginalized groups in society. The report elaborates on systemic issues that lead to additional barriers to justice. Judges and evaluators need to move away from focusing on the identification of behaviours that are contested within the discipline of psychology and towards a focus on the specific facts and contexts of each case." Link to report: https://lnkd.in/eDJD8RnS