UN expert concerned “parental alienation” being misused to discredit mothers in abuse cases: Israel

GENEVA – UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, its causes and consequences, Reem Alsalem, today expressed serious concern over a troubling pattern in Israeli family courts and child-protection systems.

Alsalem said mothers who report domestic violence, child abuse or sexual abuse are often undermined by the application of the discredited and harmful “parental alienation” theory, resulting in children being severed from their protective parent, and forced to maintain unsupervised contact with the alleged abusing parent.

“The information I have received suggests mothers who seek to protect their children from violence, including sexual violence, are too often disbelieved and portrayed as alienating the children from their fathers, unstable or manipulative,” the expert said. “At the same time, serious allegations of abuse are minimised or ignored.”

According to the credible testimonies provided by 18 Israeli mothers, allegations of intimate partner violence, child sexual abuse, substance abuse, and other serious safeguarding concerns are not consistently treated as decisive factors in custody and visitation decisions by family court judges.

“Instead, Israeli courts appear to rely on claims of parental alienation to challenge the credibility of mothers raising such protection concerns,” Alsalem said.

In several cases, mothers reported having been threatened with transfer of custody or institutionalisation of their children, or effectively lost custody, if they continued to sound the alarm on the abuse of their children.

She was particularly concerned that children who disclosed violence, expressed fear of a parent or displayed indicators of trauma have also been disbelieved. They were reportedly compelled to maintain contact with alleged perpetrators and forced to undergo “reunification therapy.”

“The consequences are immense, resulting in protective mothers being threatened, sanctioned, including through the loss of custody of their children which seriously violate the rights of the child,” she said.

“Parental alienation claims should never be weaponised to silence reports of violence or to divert attention from the duty to investigate allegations of abuse thoroughly and impartially,” Alsalem said. “The safety, dignity and rights of mothers and children must remain paramount.”

She reiterated her previous calls on the Israeli Government and family courts in Israel to repeal laws and policies that rely on the discredited concept of parental alienation to discredit women’s legitimate safeguarding concerns, undermining access to justice for mothers and their children alike, as well as their protection and freedom from violence.

The expert recalled the duty of States to modify legal or customary practices which sustain persistence and tolerance of violence against women, and to place the best interest of the child at the centre of all processes that affect children, including child custody decisions.

“Children must be heard and abuse allegations taken seriously, and mothers must never be punished for wanting to protect their children.”

The expert is in contact with the Government on these concerns.