Professor Bruch Testifies Before Canadian Parliament

Professor Carol S. Bruch was invited to testify recently before the Canadian Parliament's Senate Committee on Human Rights.  Speaking via video conferencing technology, Professor Bruch spoke on matters concerning the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction.  Topics included Canadian human rights law, accessions to the Convention by countries that base child custody and travel rights on gender, domestic violence, and special dangers to girls such as genital mutilation and honor crimes.  She emphasized the ways in which the Convention's drafters sought to protect a child by protecting its relationship with its primary caretaker.  This scheme, Professor Bruch testified, has since been ignored by many.  Its importance, however, has now been established, she said, by research on the developing brain, which reveals that life-long harm results to a young child who is removed from its primary caregiver.

Distinguished Professor Emerita Bruch is a leading expert on the Child Abduction Convention.  Her work carries forward that of the late Professor Brigitte Bodenheimer, who served on the U.S. delegation that took part in drafting the Convention.   Since her retirement from teaching, Professor Bruch has remained active in scholarship and law reform.  Most recently she has turned her attention to problems that face Californians who live in the state's seismic zones.