we don’t like capital letters, but we use them sometimes.
welcome to the hague papers, a self-led network to foster cross-border collaborative journalism unveiling human rights loopholes behind a private international law treaty.
supposed to protect children at first, its provision has turned out to expose them to harm almost half a century later.
the clear reference to the panama papers helps to envision the purpose so we can get straight to the point.
over 2,500 children a year are considered victims of international child abduction when travelling abroad with only one parent: the mother in 75% of the cases, all expats trying to go home.
according to official data, 94% of these women hold custody of their children and are their primary carers.
the 1980 hague convention on international child abduction established a protocol to ensure “abducted” children’s prompt return home; it rules 103 countries and counting.
in practice, however, kids are forced back to their previous country upon request of non-primary caring fathers, often despite evidence of abuse.
as a result, thousands of children have been torn apart from their mothers in breach of human rights in the past decade.
no one knows what happens afterwards, not even mothers sometimes.
we aim to find out.
mission(s)
- welcoming journalists familiar with or interested in justice systems and human rights.
- matchmaking reporters from countries involved in each story to work together.
- providing stories with an end-to-end approach and follow-up so they can be fully told for the first time in almost half a century.
- monitoring cases and trials.
- shedding light on systemic failures to drive accountability and positive change.
- supporting each other on an overwhelmingly overlooked issue.
- reaching english-speaking audiences with (human) translations of our pieces originally published in other languages.
…to be continued…
values
- we believe journalism is a public service towards justice.
- trauma-informed communication respects and protects everybody.
- diversity is not adversity. it sounds obvious, it’s not.
- intercultural awareness changes everything.
- gender perspective is inherent and transversal to all human rights.
- human rights. human rights. human rights.
we are journalists, not web designers, sorry for any inconvenience.
we don’t like capital letters, again.
everything is fact-checked.
…undergoing reviews…
contact
pitch us, join in or reach out:
showcase
