Family Restoration on Trial at the InterAmerican Court of Human Rights

 

A recent article out of Washington, D.C. by Tom McFeely published at the Daily News of the National Catholic Register focused on the Chilean human-rights case involving a lesbian mother, and how this case could have a far-reaching international effect on children's best interests.   "A case before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights could have negative consequences throughout the Americas for marriage and the family, religious freedom and national sovereignty.  At the request of the Alliance Defense Fund, Professor Kohm and her students on behalf of Regent's Center for Global Justice submitted an Amicus Brief on behalf of the children who are the subject of international custody litigation.

 

The case involves a child-custody claim advanced by a Chilean judge who abandoned her marriage to pursue a lesbian relationship.  Chilean father Jaime López Allende has had sole court-ordered custody of his three daughters for the last eight years and is the girls' preferred custodial parent.  Despite these facts, the transnational Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has ruled in favor of awarding custody to his ex-wife, Karen Atala. The Washington, D.C.-based commission concluded Chile's courts impermissibly violated the American Convention on Human Rights by denying Atala custody because of her sexual orientation. 

 

The commission's non-binding decision is now before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, which has authority under the American Convention on Human Rights to issue binding rulings on nations that are parties to the convention.  'I believe the intent here is to fabricate an illegitimate transnationalist jurisprudence to alter the essential foundations of Chilean society — family and marriage,' Bishop Juan Ignacio González Errazuriz of San Bernardo, Chile, told the Register via email. 'This is undoubtedly a very grave concern.'

Bishop González's concerns about the Atala case are shared by the Alliance Defense Fund, an Arizona-based legal organization dedicated to protection of religious freedom, the sanctity of life and marriage and the family. The commission's decision contained four fundamental flaws, according to a legal brief the ADF submitted last month to the Inter-American Court."  Read more: http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/family-and-marriage-on-trial#ixzz1aVNEE6gE.

 

You can read the Best Interests of the Child Brief here.  Family Restoration for three Chilean children is the focus of human rights in the InterAmerican Court.  Their future, and the future of global custody litigation are hanging in the balance in this case.  For them, this means the preservation of their family.