missing childrens day today australian ad says it is usally parents that abducts kids

the australian ad says the majority of missing children are taken /abducted by family!!!! and words to the effect that that does intense damage and trauma to the child/children so much for maddie being alive and unharmed!!! as far as we know none of the mcanns abducted but you know what i mean the mcanns persistant mantra that maddie is alive and unharmed is bulll

This relates well to your post Carly.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/21/20100524/tuk-missing-mother-may-have-fled-uk-6323e80.html

mara thon wrote:This relates well to your post Carly.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/21/20100524/tuk-missing-mother-may-have-fled-uk-6323e80.html

basically it is saying that unknown stranger abduction like what the mcanns insist happned to maddie doesnt really happen that ually it is someone they know!!! aka a parent in a custody battle etc like the twins in that link you posted the whole story about what did happpen in portugal according to the mcanns we all know that isnt true!!! also 650 australian kids go missing every year usally 99% by a parent in a child custody case and a non parental abduction is veyr rare

its what we have all always thought the scenario in portugal just doesnt happen

International Missing Children’s Day: 25 May

Help bring them home



International Missing Children's Day, 25 May, is a day where people around the world commemorate the missing children who have found their way home, remember those who have been victims of crime, and continue efforts to find those who are still missing.





The main purpose of International Missing Children's Day is to encourage everyone to think about children who remain missing and to spread a message of hope.



Australia, Canada, Brazil, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Romania, The Netherlands and the United Kingdom, member countries the Global Missing Children’s Network, have joined to raise awareness of the impact and issue surrounding missing children and to help bring them home by spreading a global message.



The theme for International Missing Children’s Day 2010 is parental child abduction, an issue that is not only complex but is becoming more common.


http://www.missingpersons.gov.au/awareness/campaigns/youthchildrens-day.aspx
http://www.missingpersons.gov.au/missing-persons/profiles/all.aspx

lets hope all those innocent children missing around the world today come home!!!

duplicated sorry

deborah wrote:vhttp://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/UK-News/Kate-And-Gerry-McCann-Launch-Revamped-Missing-Child-Alert-System-For-Britain/Article/201005415637652?lpos=UK_News_First_Home_Article_Teaser_Region_8&lid=ARTICLE_15637652_Kate_And_Gerry_McCann_Launch_Revamped_Missing_Child_Alert_System_For_Britain

dont know if this has been posted

Yes

https://missingmadeleine.forumotion.net/main-maddie-thread-latest-news-f1/mccanns-launch-missing-child-alert-system-t10777.htm

Ok - thanks will delete !

Echoing Justiceforallkids, I really hope they really get the chance to go home, unharmed and well. Its a big wish I know but unless you wish it wont come true.

'Please help us find our boys'

Tuesday, 25 May 2010



What unites the children pictured above is not their favourite football team or toy, it is the fact they have been abducted by a parent.

And what unites their left-behind parents is that their lives have been turned upside down - their universe now revolves around getting their children back.

They stand together on a sunny Tuesday morning at the National Theatre in London, where they have gathered to mark International Missing Children's Day.

The focus this year was parental abduction, and the day was also used to re-launch the UK's Child Rescue Alert, a system which notifies the public of a child abduction via the media within the first few crucial hours.

It was easy to spot the parents - they were the red-eyed ones, dabbing away the tears as they relived their nightmares.

The most recognisable face at the event was by far Kate McCann's, whose daughter Madeleine disappeared from their holiday apartment in Portugal in 2007.

But the bike-wheeling Australian Ken Thompson also stood out, as did the smiling face of his son Andrew, emblazoned across his lycra outfit.

'Completely disempowered'

Andrew was just three when his mother Melinda boarded a flight to Frankfurt with no intention of returning home. It is thought they may be in the UK, or possibly Germany or Spain.

Mr Thompson last saw his son on the 22 April 2008 - two days before he was abducted.

His wife had made unfounded allegations against him and during their family court wrangling, she saw a psychiatric report which concluded she was mentally unwell.

On the day he realised they had gone, Mr Thompson - a former deputy fire commissioner in New South Wales - went from being powerful to powerless.

"I felt completely disempowered. I was put in touch with an international lawyer who told me to give it three to six weeks but I knew my wife did not fit the profile of a parent who abducts a child," he said.

"Normally they want to go back to the country they came from but my wife was born in Australia."

He said it took months for the Australian authorities to spring into action, and although he has "tried everything", from Interpol to Facebook, it appears his wife and son have "completely vanished off the face of the earth."

So, Mr Thompson left his job and is cycling around around the UK and Europe to raise awareness of his son.

"One of the most frustrating things is that the media is keen to talk about a child that has been abducted from their country but not one that might have been taken to their country," he said.

He believes in the six degrees of separation theory and that "someone, somewhere knows something".

Mental picture

Mr Thompson talked about how multicultural marriages, ineffective legislation, and cheap airfares had all impacted on parental abduction.

But he said the key was the 1980 Hague convention on international child abduction, which aimed to ensure children's safe return to the country where they normally lived.

Under the agreement, issues of residence and contact are then decided by the courts of that country.

But Mr Thompson said it has fallen behind the times.

The borders are a lot looser than they were 30 years ago," he said.

"It's up to me to prove where Andrew is and if you can't, the people who administer the Hague convention find it hard to help."

The Hague is on his cycle route and while there, he will deliver a letter on behalf of all left-behind parents.

What keeps the pedals turning for Mr Thompson is a mental picture of Andrew with a huge smile of his face, saying: "I want to come and live with you".

'Trauma'

Blessing Mlandeli knows all about slow, protracted legal processes. The 36-year-old's son Tevin, aged just two, was taken by his father to Zimbabwe in July 2007.

"Even when it had sunk in that he had left the country, I still thought I would have him back in a month," said Ms Mlandeli.

"I didn't realise how complicated it was going to be. It took a long while for me to realise that if I wanted him back, it was going to take a big fight."

In addition to the usual red tape, her case is complicated by immigration and relations between the UK and Zimbabwe, which has not signed up to the Hague convention.

Ms Mlandeli, a support worker, did not have any contact with her son for a year but she now has custody, and he is living with her sister in Zimbabwe's capital Harare.

She hopes he will soon have the relevant documentation to travel back to the UK.

While her son is in good physical health, she said his education had suffered from the "trauma".

"He cannot read and cannot write properly and his language skills are underdeveloped," she said. "He was taken away at the age of two and that's a crucial time."

Face of hope

Other left-behind parents at the event included Dr Yusra Abo Hamed and Ken Spooner.

Dr Abo Hamed's two young sons - Sami and Rami - were taken to Syria by their father in December 2008, and Mr Spooner's two boys are in Zambia with their mother.

His partner took Devlan and Caelan on a holiday to visit her parents but never returned.

The kitchen fitter said getting his sons back was now "his life" and he was lucky he had savings to fund his legal battles and travel costs.

"I'm very bitter but I know she's my children's mother and I would like to think there will be a time that my children will be back home and they can enjoy both parents," he said.

Nadia Fawzi offered a ray of hope for the parents at the National Theatre. The six-year-old was abducted by her father when she was four and taken to Libya.

Her mother Sarah Taylor moved to the North African country and eventually won custody but it took involvement at the highest level from Gordon Brown and the Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi.

Ms Taylor reassured the left-behind parents that their children would never forget them.

"It took two and a half years for me to get my hands on my daughter again. When it's your child you find the strength from somewhere," she said.

"You have to carry on. You have to fight. No-one has the right to take away your child."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8703867.stm

Justiceforallkids wrote:lets hope all those innocent children missing around the world today come home!!!

My sentiments entirely Carly, but let's also hope that those who abuse/neglect/abduct children, are identified and punished to the maximum the law permits.