Jacqueline Pascarl
Encyclopedia
Jacqueline Pascarl , formerly known as Jacqueline Gillespie and Jacqueline Pascarl-Gillespie, is an Australian
author, TV personality and parents' rights advocate
and humanitarian aid worker. Pascarl came to public attention in 1992, when her children were covertly removed from Australia
, illegally under Australian law, by their Malaysian father. One man was convicted, sentenced and then jailed as an accomplice. The Parliament of Australia
characterised this removal as an "abduction."
studying architecture. They married in 1981, when she was 17, and moved to Terengganu
the following year, where Raja Bahrin was a junior member of the that Sultanate
. They had a daughter, Shahirah (Shah), and a son, Mohammed Baharuddin (Iddin). Raja Bahrin later took a second wife
under Islamic marital law
. By this time, Jacqueline claims the marriage had turned violent
. She returned to Australia in 1985 with their children to visit her sick grandmother, and never returned.
The couple divorced in 1986. Bahrin signed over custody of their two children, an arrangement which was later ratified by the Family Court of Australia
. In 1990, she married TV journalist Iain Gillespie. They legally separated in the mid 1990s and formally divorced in 2000. Pascarl married former school friend Bill Crocaris in 2002.
She and Crocaris have two children.
.
Pascarl established Operation Book Power in 1995, a child literacy project in Kenya
and South Africa
. In 1998, she was appointed Special Ambassador for the international development and aid agency, CARE International and worked as an emergency aid worker in the conflict zones of Bosnia
, Kosovo
and East Timor
. She was based in Europe, leaving Australia after citing privacy issues. She has garnered several humanitarian awards including commendations for child protection from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
(USA) and the United Nations
. She founded Operation Angel
.
She has written two memoirs, Once I was a Princess and Since I Was a Princess (2007). She lectures internationally and advises the European Union
and the US State Department and represents Australia at world forums on child abduction issues. She is a consultant to the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
, and has recently been appointed as a Patron of CARE International in the United Kingdom
.
It was later revealed that with the help of an accomplice, Bryan Wickham, he had taken them by car to Weipa in Australia's far north
, and by boat from the Cape York Peninsula
to Merauke
, in the Indonesia
n province of Irian Jaya. From there he took them to Malaysia via Sulawesi
, where the authorities retrospectively awarded him custody, and the children were then settled with their father in Terengganu. Wickham spent one year planning the abduction, arranging vehicles and a boat, studying the escape route. Wickham later served nine months in an Australian jail for his part. Malaysia is not a party to the Hague Convention
, which recognizes custody by the habitual residence of minor children, and so the Convention could not be used to return the children to Australia.
Some controversy surrounded Pascarl soon after the abduction, as she successfully applied to the Australian Family Court to prevent the content of any interview with her children from appearing in the Australian media, the Courts deeming published interviews to be detrimental to the children and contrary to their future reintroduction into Australian society. The Herald and Weekly Times Ltd
unsuccessfully appealed the decision. Ray Martin
of 60 Minutes had travelled to Malaysia and interviewed the prince and his family there, and while footage of the children appeared on television, what was said by the children was not broadcast in Australia. Some criticism was levelled at Pascarl regarding how she, and her then husband, had dealt with the media, but she stated she felt justified in protecting the psychological welfare of her kidnapped children.
pack that had formed outside of their house.Jacqueline is now in contact with her children most days.
Australian people
Australian people, or simply Australians, are the citizens of Australia. Australia is a multi-ethnic nation, and therefore the term "Australian" is not a racial identifier. Aside from the Indigenous Australian population, nearly all Australians or their ancestors immigrated within the past 230 years...
author, TV personality and parents' rights advocate
Parents' rights movement
The Parents' rights movement is a civil rights movement whose members are primarily interested in issues affecting fathers, mothers and children related to family law, including child custody....
and humanitarian aid worker. Pascarl came to public attention in 1992, when her children were covertly removed from Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, illegally under Australian law, by their Malaysian father. One man was convicted, sentenced and then jailed as an accomplice. The Parliament of Australia
Parliament of Australia
The Parliament of Australia, also known as the Commonwealth Parliament or Federal Parliament, is the legislative branch of the government of Australia. It is bicameral, largely modelled in the Westminster tradition, but with some influences from the United States Congress...
characterised this removal as an "abduction."
Biography
She was a young ballet dancer in 1980 when she met a Malaysian prince Raja Datuk Kamarul Bahrin Shah who was in MelbourneMelbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
studying architecture. They married in 1981, when she was 17, and moved to Terengganu
Terengganu
Terengganu is a sultanate and constitutive state of federal Malaysia. The state is also known by its Arabic honorific, Darul Iman...
the following year, where Raja Bahrin was a junior member of the that Sultanate
Sultan of Terengganu
Sultan of Terengganu is the title of the constitutional head of Terengganu state in Malaysia. The current sultan, Mizan Zainal Abidin, is the seventeenth Sultan of Terengganu...
. They had a daughter, Shahirah (Shah), and a son, Mohammed Baharuddin (Iddin). Raja Bahrin later took a second wife
Polygyny in Islam
In Islam, polygamy is allowed and practised under certain restricted conditions. Muslim men are allowed to practise polygyny, that is, they can have more than one wife at the same time, up to a total of four...
under Islamic marital law
Islamic marital jurisprudence
In Islamic law , marriage is a legal bond and social contract between a man and a woman. Islam commends marriage, with the age of marriage being whenever the individuals feel ready, financially and emotionally...
. By this time, Jacqueline claims the marriage had turned violent
Domestic violence
Domestic violence, also known as domestic abuse, spousal abuse, battering, family violence, and intimate partner violence , is broadly defined as a pattern of abusive behaviors by one or both partners in an intimate relationship such as marriage, dating, family, or cohabitation...
. She returned to Australia in 1985 with their children to visit her sick grandmother, and never returned.
The couple divorced in 1986. Bahrin signed over custody of their two children, an arrangement which was later ratified by the Family Court of Australia
Family Court of Australia
The Family Court of Australia is a superior Australian federal court of record which deals with family law matters. Together with the Federal Magistrates Court, it covers family law matters in all states and territories of Australia except Western Australia...
. In 1990, she married TV journalist Iain Gillespie. They legally separated in the mid 1990s and formally divorced in 2000. Pascarl married former school friend Bill Crocaris in 2002.
She and Crocaris have two children.
Career
A feature reporter for the Ten Network at the time of the abduction, Pascarl went on to research and produce several television documentary films, including the award winning Empty Arms, Broken Hearts, covering the topic of international parental abduction of children. She was the host of the television lifestyle show House Hunt, but she was drawn into the area of child literacy, leaving her television and radio career behind. She became an international lobbyist on the rights of the child, and an expert on parental child abduction and the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child AbductionHague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction
The Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, or Hague Abduction Convention is a multilateral treaty developed by the Hague Conference on Private International Law that provides an expeditious method to return a child internationally abducted from one member nation to...
.
Pascarl established Operation Book Power in 1995, a child literacy project in Kenya
Kenya
Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...
and South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
. In 1998, she was appointed Special Ambassador for the international development and aid agency, CARE International and worked as an emergency aid worker in the conflict zones of Bosnia
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina , sometimes called Bosnia-Herzegovina or simply Bosnia, is a country in Southern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. Bordered by Croatia to the north, west and south, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the southeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina is almost landlocked, except for the...
, Kosovo
Kosovo
Kosovo is a region in southeastern Europe. Part of the Ottoman Empire for more than five centuries, later the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija within Serbia...
and East Timor
East Timor
The Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, commonly known as East Timor , is a state in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the nearby islands of Atauro and Jaco, and Oecusse, an exclave on the northwestern side of the island, within Indonesian West Timor...
. She was based in Europe, leaving Australia after citing privacy issues. She has garnered several humanitarian awards including commendations for child protection from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children is a private, non-profit organization established in 1984 by the United States Congress.-Establishment and overview:...
(USA) and the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
. She founded Operation Angel
Operation Angel
Operation Angel is an Australian, independent non-profit organisation founded by Jacqueline Pascarl. Originally founded with the aim of restoring dignity to women and children in war torn countries, Operation Angel is now involved in disaster relief on a broader basis, recently the destructive...
.
She has written two memoirs, Once I was a Princess and Since I Was a Princess (2007). She lectures internationally and advises the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
and the US State Department and represents Australia at world forums on child abduction issues. She is a consultant to the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (Australia)
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is a department of the government of Australia charged with advancing the interests of Australia and its citizens internationally...
, and has recently been appointed as a Patron of CARE International in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
.
Paternal abduction
In 1992, Raja Bahrin came to Melbourne for a pre-arranged custody visit, after which he failed to return the children. After some days of uncertainty of his and the children's whereabouts, Raja Bahrin surfaced with them back in Malaysia. He appeared in an interview on television, but refused to say how he had managed to smuggle them out of the Australia, saying only it was the "will of Allah".It was later revealed that with the help of an accomplice, Bryan Wickham, he had taken them by car to Weipa in Australia's far north
Far North Queensland
Far North Queensland, or FNQ, is the northernmost part of the Australian state of Queensland. The region, which contains a large section of the Tropical North Queensland area, stretches from the city of Cairns north to the Torres Strait...
, and by boat from the Cape York Peninsula
Cape York Peninsula
Cape York Peninsula is a large remote peninsula located in Far North Queensland at the tip of the state of Queensland, Australia, the largest unspoilt wilderness in northern Australia and one of the last remaining wilderness areas on Earth...
to Merauke
Merauke
Merauke is a town considered to be one of the easternmost towns in Indonesia, located in Merauke Regency, Papua province, Indonesia. It is next to Maro River.In 2006 it had a population of 71,838....
, in the Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
n province of Irian Jaya. From there he took them to Malaysia via Sulawesi
Sulawesi
Sulawesi is one of the four larger Sunda Islands of Indonesia and is situated between Borneo and the Maluku Islands. In Indonesia, only Sumatra, Borneo, and Papua are larger in territory, and only Java and Sumatra have larger Indonesian populations.- Etymology :The Portuguese were the first to...
, where the authorities retrospectively awarded him custody, and the children were then settled with their father in Terengganu. Wickham spent one year planning the abduction, arranging vehicles and a boat, studying the escape route. Wickham later served nine months in an Australian jail for his part. Malaysia is not a party to the Hague Convention
Hague Convention
The Hague Convention may refer to:* Hague Conventions , among the first formal statements of the laws of war and war crimes in international law...
, which recognizes custody by the habitual residence of minor children, and so the Convention could not be used to return the children to Australia.
Some controversy surrounded Pascarl soon after the abduction, as she successfully applied to the Australian Family Court to prevent the content of any interview with her children from appearing in the Australian media, the Courts deeming published interviews to be detrimental to the children and contrary to their future reintroduction into Australian society. The Herald and Weekly Times Ltd
The Herald and Weekly Times Ltd
The Herald and Weekly Times Limited is a newspaper publishing company based in Melbourne, Australia. It is owned and operated by Rupert Murdoch's News Limited, who purchased HWT in 1987.-Newspapers:...
unsuccessfully appealed the decision. Ray Martin
Ray Martin (television presenter)
Raymond George "Ray" Martin AM is an Australian television journalist. He is best known for his various on-air roles on Channel Nine from 1978 to 2008. In 2011 he returned to 60 Minutes....
of 60 Minutes had travelled to Malaysia and interviewed the prince and his family there, and while footage of the children appeared on television, what was said by the children was not broadcast in Australia. Some criticism was levelled at Pascarl regarding how she, and her then husband, had dealt with the media, but she stated she felt justified in protecting the psychological welfare of her kidnapped children.
Reunited
Despite the fact the Prince had softened his stance in recent years and stated that his children could see their mother sometime after they turned eighteen, Pascarl did not see her children again until 2006 when her twenty year-old daughter Shahirah (now known simply as Shah) visited her in Melbourne. In August 2006, her son Iddin, now 23, returned to Australia to visit his mother after fourteen years of separation.." Upon the return of his wife's abducted daughter Shah in 2006, her husband Bill was the spokesperson for his wife to the mediaMass media
Mass media refers collectively to all media technologies which are intended to reach a large audience via mass communication. Broadcast media transmit their information electronically and comprise of television, film and radio, movies, CDs, DVDs and some other gadgets like cameras or video consoles...
pack that had formed outside of their house.Jacqueline is now in contact with her children most days.
Other sources
- Jacqueline Pascarl-Gillespie, Once I was a Princess (Pan Macmillan, 1995) ISBN 0732908159
- Jacqueline Pascarl, Since I was a Princess (Harper Collins, 2007) ISBN 9780732283223