Slovak activists are launching an initiative which could fill a legislative gap when dealing with parents who abduct their own children and take them abroad.
The project was inspired by the case of four-year-old Adam Azab, who lived with his Slovak mother Katarína, but was taken to Egypt by his Egyptian father. Usually, similar cases are governed by international treaties, but there is no such treaty between Slovakia and Egypt, the SITA newswire wrote.
Anna Ghanamová from the NGO Chance for the Unwanted informed a press conference on Thursday, October 28, that a petition with three goals is to be launched. It will demand the establishment of a fund for helping abducted children and citizens facing a family crisis abroad. The second goal is to establish a so-called AMBER system which will ensure that all television channels, train and bus stations, and airports would display photographs of both the kidnapped and the suspected kidnappers. The petition will also demand a European system to protect the rights of parents in countries that receive aid from the EU.
The activists are starting their petition at the Egyptian Embassy in Bratislava and will then move to the office of the European Commission delegation in Slovakia. They want Egypt to declare Adam missing and to start a national and international search for him with the participation of Interpol. Ghanamová said Interpol had told her it was working on the matter.
During a holiday in Egypt two years ago, Egyptian national Ahmed Azab kidnapped his then-two-and-a-half-year-old child from his mother Katarína. The mother, who had been awarded custody of Adam by both Slovak and Egyptian courts, says she is willing to withdraw legal action against the father and come to an out-of-court settlement.
Source: SITA
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
