LEBANON Child Abduction

 Return of children abducted to or in Lebanon.

Notes by Jeremy D. Morley

There are extreme difficulties in returning a child to the United States from Lebanon when retained by a Lebanese parent.

Lebanon is not a party to the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction.

There are no extradition treaties between Lebanon and the United States.

Under Lebanese law, Lebanese nationals may prevent their wives and children (even if they are American citizens) from leaving Lebanon.

Lebanon does not recognize international parental kidnapping as a crime.

Issues of child custody and divorce in Lebanon are generally decided in religious courts under religious law. Thus, if the father is a Sunni Muslim and the mother is a Christian the custody of their children will normally be decided by a Sunni Muslim court.

One might petition a civil court to handle a custody case instead of a religious court. The issue would be whether the religious court has jurisdiction. It could take up to two years to have the civil court assume jurisdiction and a minimum of four to five years to have the case decided.

Among Sunni Muslims, the father has physical custody of a daughter over the age of nine and of a boy over the age of seven. For Shia Muslims the father generally has physical custody at for boys at age 2 and for girls at age 7.

If a father establishes that the mother is unfit or lacking good moral character, she will lose any right to the child. Muslim law requires a child to be raised in the Muslim faith, and if it were proven that a mother tried to raise the child as a Christian, she could be found unfit.

Lebanon does not recognize dual nationality. American/Lebanese dual nationals who carry Lebanese papers will be treated as Lebanese nationals by security authorities.  

 A child who is a dual American and Lebanese citizen would be bound by Lebanese law in the eyes of the Lebanese civil courts.

The U.S. State Department cannot offer any real assistance even if there were a United States court order directing the return of the child from Lebanon.

'No phones or lawyers' for alleged abductors

The Age, Jan. 6, 2007

AN AUSTRALIAN and a New Zealander held on child abduction charges in Lebanon say they have been almost completely isolated for the two weeks since their arrest, with little or no access to lawyers. "We don't know what's going on in the world, or even with our case," said Brian Corrigan, 38, a former soldier from Wollongong. "We've heard nothing from our families. There are no phones in here or ways to send a message."

The men said that, pending legal advice, they could not discuss details of the December 21 swoop in which they and two other New Zealanders allegedly helped Canadian mother Melissa Hawach retrieve her abducted children from their father, Australian-Lebanese businessman Joseph Hawach. The two men were taken from a plane they had boarded at Beirut airport after police identified them from copies of their passport taken when they hired cars and a hotel room.

They face up to three years of hard labour on charges of abducting and/or aiding the abduction of minors aged under 18. Family law in Lebanon automatically recognises the custody rights of the girls' Lebanese father, irrespective of Canadian court orders granting custody to their mother and the international arrest warrants pending against him for the girls' abduction from Sydney last July.

Local legal sources say that as a Lebanese citizen Mr Hawach cannot be extradited to any foreign country, regardless of what crimes he is accused of. Asked about the alleged abduction in Beirut, Corrigan said only that if he had to do it again, he would do it differently. "I wouldn't get caught," he said. "We knew we were leaving a paper trail but we went ahead with it. We felt we had to go ahead."

Corrigan said he had not received any money for the alleged task. He did not know the whereabouts of Ms Hawach and her daughters, Hannah, 5, and Cedar, 2, but "if you ask me they're outside the country already".

Ambassador Mrs Maura Harty, Assistant Secretary, Department of State, Washington, United States

Parental Access to Children Abroad: Efforts by the United States of America to Promote Cooperation with States not Party to the Hague Abduction Convention

 14-17 March 2004, St. Julian’s, Malta

 ….. Some of the greatest challenges we face concern children abducted to, or wrongfully retained in, countries that are not party to the Hague Abduction Convention and that have legal systems or cultural norms incompatible with the Convention. This is particularly true in various Middle Eastern countries where children and foreign national parents find their entry and departure strictly controlled, and easily blocked, by an abductor parent. Parents who have been granted custody rights by United States courts often find those custody rights ignored, unenforceable, and contradicted by local custody law.

 The United States pursues an ongoing effort seeking better ways to assist left-behind parents in such countries. Generally speaking, the Department of State views the Hague Abduction Convention and its effective application as the standard for international cooperation on the resolution of international parental child abduction and wrongful retention cases. However, left-behind parents in the United States have found it particularly difficult to obtain return of, and access to, children in countries where the legal system is unfamiliar to them.

 Advantages are often stacked in the abducting parent’s favor and multilateral tools like the Convention are not an option. Cases involving children abducted from United States parents and retained in the Middle East frequently result in a total break in contact between the child and the left-behind parent and can garner high levels of Congressional interest and media attention.

 Over the past two years, I have led Department of State discussions with leaders in non-Hague countries including Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Pakistan, India, the Philippines, the United Arab Emirates and Morocco to explore developing closer bilateral cooperation to assist parents in abduction and access cases.

 In meeting with my counterparts throughout the world, and particularly in the Middle East, I have encouraged the mutual recognition of the importance of facilitating parents’ access to their children and to information about their children’s welfare. Central to these discussions is the premise that, except in highly unusual and limited cases, children deserve and need to have contact with both parents.

 Some of our discussions have resulted in joint statements that express our mutual concerns and shared principles concerning contact between parents and children. In October 2003, the governments of the United States and Egypt signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on Consular Cooperation in Cases Concerning Parental Access to Children. In April 2004, the United States and Lebanese governments signed a similar MOU. Both MOUs anticipate future consultations concerning how consular officials can cooperate to assist parents to obtain meaningful access to their children.

 These memoranda confirm our shared belief that, while voluntary resolution of custody and access arrangements between parents should be encouraged, there are situations in which our respective governments can cooperate to overcome barriers to contacts between parents and their children.

 Both MOUs anticipate that future arrangements on consular cooperation in access cases would be based on the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, and, in particular, the provisions of articles 5(e) and (h), according to which consular functions include assisting nationals of the sending State and safeguarding the interests of children who are nationals of the sending State. The MOUs set forth a set of shared principles regarding what sorts of contact between parent and child constitute acceptable access. The MOUs make clear that access should normally include regular in person visits, regular telephone conversations, unlimited correspondence, visits by consular officers, and exchanges of photographs and information from the child’s school and medical records. The MOUs acknowledge that parents who travel from abroad naturally want visits with their children to take place in suitable surroundings and for a sufficient length of time to allow for meaningful interaction between parent and child. The MOUs therefore foresee arrangements that would assist parents as needed in enabling such visits, including by working to ensure that appropriate visas to facilitate parental travel are issued without undue delay.

 The MOU signed with Lebanon also articulates the principle that adults (persons 18 years of age or older) should be free to choose to travel and relocate, subject to applicable immigration and visa regulations.

 This section addresses difficulties some parents and their adult children have had in obtaining authorization to depart Lebanon when other family members were opposed. Both memoranda also underline the importance of exchanging information about each country’s laws and practices relevant to child custody, parental access to children, and related matters. Such exchanges will help the United States and its partners take steps to disseminate better information to our residents and citizens.

 Finally, both MOUs stress the shared principle that access by parents to their children is not a substitute for the return of abducted or wrongfully retained children. Any future arrangements on consular cooperation to promote such access would not operate to justify a failure to return children, or to prevent parents from attempting to establish or enforce rights of custody and access through the legal systems of either country.

Contact Us

Jeremy D. Morley

International Family Law
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New York, NY 10169
jmorley@international-divorce.com
Tel: (212) 372-3425
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 International Child Custody Laws:

U.S. State Dept.:

Lebanon is not a signatory to the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Parental Child Abduction, nor are there any international or bilateral treaties in force between Lebanon and the United States dealing with the return of children who are subjects of international parental child abduction. Lebanese fathers of minor children (under 18 years of age) may legally prevent their children from leaving or being taken from Lebanon. Likewise, a Lebanese husband may take legal action to prevent his wife from leaving the country, regardless of her nationality. During a custody dispute or divorce proceedings, either party can request an injunction to prevent the other's departure from the country. Once such legal orders are in place, the U.S. Embassy is unable to lift the travel restriction. Parents should also note that American custody orders might not be enforced in Lebanon. There have been recent kidnappings of Lebanese-American women by their Lebanese relatives in an effort to force these women into marriage.