Online Petition to White House on Child Abductions - PLEASE SIGN

[patrickm]

Please take just *2 mins* to sign this online petition at the White House Petition Site: http://bit.ly/nesntV

The petition is calling for public discourse and transparency in discussions between the US Government and the Government of Japan on the topic of International Child Abduction - for which Japan is currently one of the top destination countries for Child Abductors.

All we need is 5000 signatures (before Oct. 22) in order to get an official response from the White House.

So what that means is:

1. We need you to sign
2. We need you to get 10 other people to sign
3. We need you to ask *each* of your friends and family members to get 10 people (each) to sign

50 x 10 x 10 == 5000

As simple as that; really it is.

If you can help us to do that, the petition will meet the 5000 mark within days. And you will have helped to take measures to potentially help get hundreds, if not thousands, of US children returned home.

Thank You.

Patrick McPike
Father of Kai (5) and Koh (3) Abducted March 2011
http://letterstomysons.com/about/

----


WE PETITION THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION TO:
PUBLICLY press Japan for the return of Abducted US Children and provide transparent dialogs with Japan on this issue
Hundreds, if not thousands, of US Citizen Children have been abducted to, or retained in, the country of Japan.

Japan has never returned a single child, has no legal concept of "joint-custody", no enforcement of visitation, no requirement for rules of evidence on claims of DV.

The US Congress, in HR1326, has publicly condemned Japan and demanded the immediate return of this children.

However, the Executive Branch has only held back-room discussions. Additionally, there are persuasive claims the DoS is significantly downplaying the number of actual cases.

There needs to be complete transparency into this process, and public condemnation of Japan. These are our country's children. We the people deserve to know if they are being traded for bases or other government goals.

[Diane]

I just joined and signed.   Fwd to friends and family.  So happy for the opportunity to do something proactive to help with this.   Also, thank you for showing where petitions of this kind can be made.   Good luck and I'm sure it won't take long to get enough signatures. 

[patrickm]

I just joined and signed.   Fwd to friends and family.  So happy for the opportunity to do something proactive to help with this.   Also, thank you for showing where petitions of this kind can be made.   Good luck and I'm sure it won't take long to get enough signatures. 

Thanks Diane!

All to all the other folks that I know have posted today!

At last count, we had 200 people sign the petition just today.  That is absolutely awesome!  But we still have a long ways to go to meet the 5000 signature requirement.  And personally, I'd like to see us blow that number out of the park and send a loud message to the White House.

Thank to everyone for their support..... Keep spreading the word and asking people to both sign - and ask them to agree to get at least 10 people each to sign as well.

Thanks,

Patrick

[Bree]

I signed and hope that you will have the required 5000 signatures soon. 

[rduffiel]

I have signed.

[kmoor88]

Signed and put on Facebook and Twitter.

[Diane]

Right now the battle of each individual left behind parent,  is a lonely sojourn to bring attention and ACTION to the issue of international child abduction.

The theft of our youngest citizens to other countries,  some countries so fraught with violence, kidnapping, etc that travel alerts or issued for U.S. citizens.  Adults such as those released from Iran were at least under the scrutiny of press and monitoring by our state dept.  

These children are often under the radar with parents unable to locate them even for a so called well being check by the state dept.   They are often in countries, notoriously corrupt due to  dire poverty or just an entrenched cultural acceptance of that practice.  For much of the world,  resentment of the U.S policies, oftentimes justified, make these children targets of prejudice, or a symbolic sense of power or control, national pride if you will by countries offended by our greater wealth or influence.

There may be an effort to use these children as pawns to obtain something but the truth is that this gives them almost no leverage at all. as this country, except in the rarest of circumstances, even begins to care. Most of the time our state dept remains deadly silent,  often placing hidden handicaps on parents in their solitary efforts to affect a return.   Small and helpless these children are "blimps on the radar"  too insignificant to even be acknowledged by almost anyone in a position of power in our government.

I'm attaching this message to your thread Patrick because I respect your initiative and the way you stated your case and put this together. The new option of a petition directly to the president is a real opportunity to be heard,     He is going to need all the votes and good will he can get.    I would love to see someone write a joint petition for all the abducted children.    United with all families, friends and relatives we should be able to gather thousands of signatures.  Meanwhile,  I will continue to try to garner signatures for your petition and pray you reach your goal.  

[M.Capestro]

Sorry to be crass so early in the morning, but this article makes me want to vomit. Why not just outright state, "We'll sign the treaty for the policital clout it will provide us, but we have no plan to return abducted children."

In other words, if you haven't signed the petition posted above, now's the time to act folks!


Bill eyes incorporating children's views in int'l custody battles
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20111001p2g00m0dm009000c.html
 

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- The Justice Ministry proposed Friday that children's opinions be reflected when settling cross-border child custody disputes.
 
The idea was contained in the ministry's draft interim proposals for domestic legislation that it is preparing for submission to a regular Diet session next year, before Japan joins an international pact related to the matter known as the Hague Convention.
 
Under the ministry's draft legislation, the handing over of children to a spouse could be refused if there is a possibility that they could be subjected to violence.
 
If a year has passed since children were taken away and they have already adapted to their new environment or if children refuse, their hand over to a spouse could be rejected.
 
The cases would be examined by family courts behind-closed-doors. Under the proposal, court decisions could be appealed twice in the same way most civil cases are handled.
 
The ministry will solicit public comments on the interim draft via the Internet until Oct. 31.
 
Opinions are also being solicited regarding the Foreign Ministry's proposal to set up a government organization to search for children in Japan entangled in cross-border custody disputes.
 
Japan decided in May to sign the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. It is the only one of the Group of Eight advanced countries yet to join the convention after Russia acceded to it in July.
 

(Mainichi Japan) October 1, 2011

[L.E.R.P.]

I Signed!

Signatures needed by October 22, 2011 to reach goal of 5,000

Total signatures on this petition1,009.

We Need -> 3,991 more signatures !

https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions/%21/petition/publicly-press-japan-return-abducted-us-children-and-provide-transparent-dialogs-japan-issue/7Q2JS8Wn

[pptoland]

Here is a new video on this petition that you can spread around to those you know Petition to Return Abducted U.S. Children from Japan

[Diane]

Just put the link on my facebook.   I hope it helps.

[SageDad]

Sorry to be crass so early in the morning, but this article makes me want to vomit. Why not just outright state, "We'll sign the treaty for the policital clout it will provide us, but we have no plan to return abducted children."

In other words, if you haven't signed the petition posted above, now's the time to act folks!


Bill eyes incorporating children's views in int'l custody battles
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20111001p2g00m0dm009000c.html
 

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- The Justice Ministry proposed Friday that children's opinions be reflected when settling cross-border child custody disputes.
 
The idea was contained in the ministry's draft interim proposals for domestic legislation that it is preparing for submission to a regular Diet session next year, before Japan joins an international pact related to the matter known as the Hague Convention.
 
Under the ministry's draft legislation, the handing over of children to a spouse could be refused if there is a possibility that they could be subjected to violence.
 
If a year has passed since children were taken away and they have already adapted to their new environment or if children refuse, their hand over to a spouse could be rejected.
 
The cases would be examined by family courts behind-closed-doors. Under the proposal, court decisions could be appealed twice in the same way most civil cases are handled.
 
The ministry will solicit public comments on the interim draft via the Internet until Oct. 31.
 
Opinions are also being solicited regarding the Foreign Ministry's proposal to set up a government organization to search for children in Japan entangled in cross-border custody disputes.
 
Japan decided in May to sign the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. It is the only one of the Group of Eight advanced countries yet to join the convention after Russia acceded to it in July.
 

(Mainichi Japan) October 1, 2011

Yeah, I read that about the same way, but hoped there was some bad translation issues going on.  Beyond that, sometimes news articles over-simplify things.

But.. in fairness, even if there's no translation issues and that's not an oversimplification, that's all that State really wants Japan to do.

If Japan would just sign the damn thing, even if they denied every return (well.. and maybe return one child to their US mother so Japan LBP's can't keep saying "black hole"), it would give State the political cover to handle the Japan cases the way it handles all the other Convention cases... by doing nothing.

[ProudDaddy]

Sorry to be crass so early in the morning, but this article makes me want to vomit. Why not just outright state, "We'll sign the treaty for the policital clout it will provide us, but we have no plan to return abducted children."

In other words, if you haven't signed the petition posted above, now's the time to act folks!


Bill eyes incorporating children's views in int'l custody battles
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20111001p2g00m0dm009000c.html
 

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- The Justice Ministry proposed Friday that children's opinions be reflected when settling cross-border child custody disputes.
 
The idea was contained in the ministry's draft interim proposals for domestic legislation that it is preparing for submission to a regular Diet session next year, before Japan joins an international pact related to the matter known as the Hague Convention.
 
Under the ministry's draft legislation, the handing over of children to a spouse could be refused if there is a possibility that they could be subjected to violence.
 
If a year has passed since children were taken away and they have already adapted to their new environment or if children refuse, their hand over to a spouse could be rejected.
 
The cases would be examined by family courts behind-closed-doors. Under the proposal, court decisions could be appealed twice in the same way most civil cases are handled.
 
The ministry will solicit public comments on the interim draft via the Internet until Oct. 31.
 
Opinions are also being solicited regarding the Foreign Ministry's proposal to set up a government organization to search for children in Japan entangled in cross-border custody disputes.
 
Japan decided in May to sign the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. It is the only one of the Group of Eight advanced countries yet to join the convention after Russia acceded to it in July.
 

(Mainichi Japan) October 1, 2011

Yeah, I read that about the same way, but hoped there was some bad translation issues going on.  Beyond that, sometimes news articles over-simplify things.

But.. in fairness, even if there's no translation issues and that's not an oversimplification, that's all that State really wants Japan to do.

If Japan would just sign the damn thing, even if they denied every return (well.. and maybe return one child to their US mother so Japan LBP's can't keep saying "black hole"), it would give State the political cover to handle the Japan cases the way it handles all the other Convention cases... by doing nothing.

The Japanese Minister must be receiving legal advice with Tostes... and we'll be sure of that if the next move is the Japanese to talk about "socio-affective fatherhood"...

[patrickm]

Hey Folks,


I appreciate the support of everyone who has already signed.  We have past the 1K mark so we are over 20% of the way to getting a response from the White House.

Unfortunately, we seem to be losing momentum on the number of signatures that we are gathering daily.

We need everyone to continue posting to FaceBook, Twitter, etc.  I do this daily as a constant reminder to people.

Additionally - We need to go a bit "Old School" as well.

• Send Direct messages to people - email, twitter, FB, etc.
• Pick up the phone - get someone live and *ask* them to commit to *both* signing and getting others to sign
• Speak out at your social groups - church, business networks, sports clubs, etc.

We only have 19 days left to make the 5000 signature mark... or else, we have to start all over.


PLEASE, do everything that you can.

Thanks,

Patrick

[M.Capestro]

We only have 19 days left to make the 5000 signature mark... or else, we have to start all over.

PLEASE, do everything that you can.

And starting over will mean that we would need to achieve 25,000 signatures in 30 days. The White House recently announced that the response they've received to this has been overwhelming. Many of the petitions achieved 5,000 signatures in less than a week. They've updated the requirements for all new petitions -- 25,000 in 30 days vs the 5,000 required for petitions already established.

Now's the time to strike!