Parents and Abducted Children Together
Encyclopedia
Parents & Abducted Children Together (PACT) is an international non-profit organisation which specialises in fighting international child abduction
and in helping law enforcement agencies find missing children.
established PACT in 2000, as an associate of the US-based International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children, an organization she co-founded, ICMEC is the international arm of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
(NCMEC. The charity's mission is to fight international child abduction by raising awareness, advocating solutions and helping to locate and retrieve missing children by working closely with police forces.
PACT advocates the use of the Missing kids website website by police forces in the UK. The website permits the instant dissemination of photographs and descriptions of missing children, together with details of the circumstances of their disappearance. Posters can also be downloaded from the site. The Missing kids website is part of a network of 16 other national websites which are linked to a global network with easy worldwide access. The technology includes a language translator and age progression techniques.
PACT also advocates the adoption of the Child Rescue Alert which has been successful in rescuing children who may be in grave danger. This system, first developed in the US as the Amber Alert
, uses the media and electronic messaging on freeway/motorway gantries to alert the public to a child's disappearance and engage their help in the search and safe recovery of the child.
PACT has campaigned to enact legislation to change the way in which missing children are handled in the UK, the US and Europe.
has worked in partnership with PACT since 2000 by displaying posters of missing children in their stores throughout the UK.
The engineering and management services corporation, Emcor (UK) entered a partnership in 2006 with PACT and NPIA (National Policing Improvement Agency
) Missing Persons Bureau to bring to the UK its Taking KidSafety to the Street ™ campaign. Through this program, Emcor places posters of missing children in their offices, on their vehicles and major sites in the UK
on the long-term effect of abduction and/or forcible separation on children.
The documentary
entitled “Victims of Another War: The Aftermath of Parental Alienation,” focuses on three victims of parental alienation and/or international parental kidnapping. Each individual describes the psychological impact of their experiences on both their childhood and adult lives.
PACT's first research paper, Every Five Minutes" http://www.pact-online.org/Research/research-every-five-minutes-pact-parents-and-abducted-children-together-parental-abduction-missing-children-associate-of-icmec.html, was published in October 2005. It examined available data to try to establish how many children go missing in the UK every year and demonstrated that official statistics were unreliable or non-existent.
A Postcode Lottery, published in November 2006, mapped out for the first time, the plethora of different agencies in the UK and the significant variation in quality of the services they provide to missing children.
Beyond Every Five Minutes, published in November 2007, brought together PACT’s earlier reports, concluding that, with the response to the phenomenon of missing children so fragmented and disorganized, major rationalization on the American model, NCMEC was necessary.
spoke at ICMEC to launch PACT's documentary “Victims of Another War: The Aftermath of Parental Alienation.” It was then screened in England at the Lewis Centre before a large audience.
On 3 January 2006, UK newspaper The Sun joined with PACT’s call for the government
to improve the gathering of statistics on missing and abducted children. The newspaper article featured ten children who had gone missing and asked readers to call the Police Missing Person’s Hotline if they saw anyone remotely resembling the children.
In August 2007, Missing People and PACT wrote to Tony McNulty
MP (Minister of State at the Home Office
) to highlight the serious limitations in the department's annual statistical series ‘’Crime in England and Wales’’. The organizations highlighted that Home Office
statistics on child abduction have two major flaws. First, they fail to distinguish between different types of child abduction
, such as by strangers or parents, or attempted or completed abductions. Second, in cases where abductions lead to more serious crimes, only murders are recorded. Kate and Gerry McCann, the parents of missing child Madeleine McCann, joined Missing People and PACT to urge the Home Office
to improve the quality of these statistics.
10 October 2007, PACT and the Police National Missing Persons Bureau launched Missing Children TV, a TV channel showing photographs and information on some of the 100,000 children that go missing every year. Electronics Health Media (EHM) screens the short information bulletins in the waiting rooms of hospitals and GP surgeries.
In March 2009, Emcor announced it would be featuring its 12th child in their national poster campaign run by PACT, NPIA and Emcor Group (UK). The company noted that since the programme’s launch in 2006, four children featured on the posters had been found.
On 25 May 2011, International Missing Children's Day, she scored a notable success when the Home Office announced major changes to child protection services in the UK - in particular the passing of responsibility for missing, abducted and exploited children to the Child Exploitation and Online Protection agency (CEOP). This was the culmination of a ten-year lobbying campaign. Her role was recognised in the Home Office press release.
In May 2011 the finances of Parents & Abducted Children Together were called into question by the Mandrake gossip column of the Daily Telegraph. The organization replied to these accusations in a letter to the Telegraph..
International child abduction
The term international child abduction is generally synonymous with international parental kidnapping, child snatching, and child stealing. However, the more precise legal usage of international child abduction originates in private international law and refers to the illegal removal of children...
and in helping law enforcement agencies find missing children.
Establishment and overview
Lady Catherine MeyerCatherine Meyer
Catherine Irene Meyer, Lady Meyer is the wife of Sir Christopher Meyer, the former British Ambassador to the United States. She is the founder of the charity Parents & Abducted Children Together .-Background and Career:...
established PACT in 2000, as an associate of the US-based International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children, an organization she co-founded, ICMEC is the international arm of 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:...
(NCMEC. The charity's mission is to fight international child abduction by raising awareness, advocating solutions and helping to locate and retrieve missing children by working closely with police forces.
PACT advocates the use of the Missing kids website website by police forces in the UK. The website permits the instant dissemination of photographs and descriptions of missing children, together with details of the circumstances of their disappearance. Posters can also be downloaded from the site. The Missing kids website is part of a network of 16 other national websites which are linked to a global network with easy worldwide access. The technology includes a language translator and age progression techniques.
PACT also advocates the adoption of the Child Rescue Alert which has been successful in rescuing children who may be in grave danger. This system, first developed in the US as the Amber Alert
AMBER Alert
An AMBER Alert or a Child Abduction Emergency is a child abduction alert bulletin in several countries throughout the world, issued upon the suspected abduction of a child, since 1996...
, uses the media and electronic messaging on freeway/motorway gantries to alert the public to a child's disappearance and engage their help in the search and safe recovery of the child.
PACT has campaigned to enact legislation to change the way in which missing children are handled in the UK, the US and Europe.
Partnerships
PACT has created commercial partnerships to raise public awareness and distribute posters of missing children. The British grocery chain TescoTesco
Tesco plc is a global grocery and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Cheshunt, United Kingdom. It is the third-largest retailer in the world measured by revenues and the second-largest measured by profits...
has worked in partnership with PACT since 2000 by displaying posters of missing children in their stores throughout the UK.
The engineering and management services corporation, Emcor (UK) entered a partnership in 2006 with PACT and NPIA (National Policing Improvement Agency
National Policing Improvement Agency
The United Kingdom's National Policing Improvement Agency is a non-departmental public body established to support police by providing expertise in such areas as information technology, information sharing, and recruitment.-Background:...
) Missing Persons Bureau to bring to the UK its Taking KidSafety to the Street ™ campaign. Through this program, Emcor places posters of missing children in their offices, on their vehicles and major sites in the UK
Documentary and research papers
PACT has produced three major studies and a documentaryDocumentary
A documentary is a creative work of non-fiction, including:* Documentary film, including television* Radio documentary* Documentary photographyRelated terms include:...
on the long-term effect of abduction and/or forcible separation on children.
The documentary
Documentary
A documentary is a creative work of non-fiction, including:* Documentary film, including television* Radio documentary* Documentary photographyRelated terms include:...
entitled “Victims of Another War: The Aftermath of Parental Alienation,” focuses on three victims of parental alienation and/or international parental kidnapping. Each individual describes the psychological impact of their experiences on both their childhood and adult lives.
PACT's first research paper, Every Five Minutes" http://www.pact-online.org/Research/research-every-five-minutes-pact-parents-and-abducted-children-together-parental-abduction-missing-children-associate-of-icmec.html, was published in October 2005. It examined available data to try to establish how many children go missing in the UK every year and demonstrated that official statistics were unreliable or non-existent.
A Postcode Lottery, published in November 2006, mapped out for the first time, the plethora of different agencies in the UK and the significant variation in quality of the services they provide to missing children.
Beyond Every Five Minutes, published in November 2007, brought together PACT’s earlier reports, concluding that, with the response to the phenomenon of missing children so fragmented and disorganized, major rationalization on the American model, NCMEC was necessary.
Activities and announcements
On 5 October 2005, Lady Catherine MeyerCatherine Meyer
Catherine Irene Meyer, Lady Meyer is the wife of Sir Christopher Meyer, the former British Ambassador to the United States. She is the founder of the charity Parents & Abducted Children Together .-Background and Career:...
spoke at ICMEC to launch PACT's documentary “Victims of Another War: The Aftermath of Parental Alienation.” It was then screened in England at the Lewis Centre before a large audience.
On 3 January 2006, UK newspaper The Sun joined with PACT’s call for the government
Government
Government refers to the legislators, administrators, and arbitrators in the administrative bureaucracy who control a state at a given time, and to the system of government by which they are organized...
to improve the gathering of statistics on missing and abducted children. The newspaper article featured ten children who had gone missing and asked readers to call the Police Missing Person’s Hotline if they saw anyone remotely resembling the children.
In August 2007, Missing People and PACT wrote to Tony McNulty
Tony McNulty
Anthony "Tony" James McNulty is a former British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament for Harrow East from 1997 to 2010 and was a government minister from 2002 to 2009. He was Minister for London and Minister of State for Employment and Welfare Reform at the Department for...
MP (Minister of State at the Home Office
Home Office
The Home Office is the United Kingdom government department responsible for immigration control, security, and order. As such it is responsible for the police, UK Border Agency, and the Security Service . It is also in charge of government policy on security-related issues such as drugs,...
) to highlight the serious limitations in the department's annual statistical series ‘’Crime in England and Wales’’. The organizations highlighted that Home Office
Home Office
The Home Office is the United Kingdom government department responsible for immigration control, security, and order. As such it is responsible for the police, UK Border Agency, and the Security Service . It is also in charge of government policy on security-related issues such as drugs,...
statistics on child abduction have two major flaws. First, they fail to distinguish between different types of child abduction
Child abduction
Child abduction or Child theft is the unauthorized removal of a minor from the custody of the child's natural or legally appointed guardians....
, such as by strangers or parents, or attempted or completed abductions. Second, in cases where abductions lead to more serious crimes, only murders are recorded. Kate and Gerry McCann, the parents of missing child Madeleine McCann, joined Missing People and PACT to urge the Home Office
Home Office
The Home Office is the United Kingdom government department responsible for immigration control, security, and order. As such it is responsible for the police, UK Border Agency, and the Security Service . It is also in charge of government policy on security-related issues such as drugs,...
to improve the quality of these statistics.
10 October 2007, PACT and the Police National Missing Persons Bureau launched Missing Children TV, a TV channel showing photographs and information on some of the 100,000 children that go missing every year. Electronics Health Media (EHM) screens the short information bulletins in the waiting rooms of hospitals and GP surgeries.
In March 2009, Emcor announced it would be featuring its 12th child in their national poster campaign run by PACT, NPIA and Emcor Group (UK). The company noted that since the programme’s launch in 2006, four children featured on the posters had been found.
On 25 May 2011, International Missing Children's Day, she scored a notable success when the Home Office announced major changes to child protection services in the UK - in particular the passing of responsibility for missing, abducted and exploited children to the Child Exploitation and Online Protection agency (CEOP). This was the culmination of a ten-year lobbying campaign. Her role was recognised in the Home Office press release.
In May 2011 the finances of Parents & Abducted Children Together were called into question by the Mandrake gossip column of the Daily Telegraph. The organization replied to these accusations in a letter to the Telegraph..
See also
- International child abduction in the United StatesInternational child abduction in the United StatesAs a result of its high level of immigration and emigration and its status as common source and destination for a large amount of international travel the United States has more incoming and outgoing international child abductions per year than any other country...
- Hague Abduction Convention