A chara, – I read with interest Ruadhán McCormaic’s article on child abduction to states governed by Shari’a law (Weekend Review July 6th).
Merely monitoring and recording the number of children removed to cultures where young girls may be submitted to female genital mutilation or arranged marriages is not sufficient to protect the human rights of those children or their non-consenting parent.
The fundamental reason why Shari’a law states have not acceded to the Hague Convention – which requires that the issue of custody be decided by the court of the domicile of the child – is that the adversarial nature of the courts is fundamentally incompatible with the ethos of Shari’an family law.
Under Islam matters relating to the family are kept within the family and resolved by mediation.
If Ireland is to make a genuine effort to address child abduction to Islamic states it needs to provide a mediation process through bilateral treaties with each country, as happens with France and several North African countries. – Is mise,