Airlines should require passengers travelling with minors to produce affidavits from custodial parents authorizing the children to travel, says Khawla Khalifa.

The third-year law student draws on her own experience with parental abduction to highlight the need for legal reform in an opinion piece published this month in Canadian Lawyer magazine.

“My legal nightmare drove me to study law and push for change,” Khalifa writes, before detailing how her ex-husband took two of their children to Lebanon despite an order from the Ontario Superior Court banning travel with them.

After more than two years, the children were returned to Canada as part of a legal settlement that included a statement from Khalifa that she did not want the abductor prosecuted.

“I would have signed anything to get my children back,” she recalls.

When her story went public, she heard from many other women who have had their children taken.

“My children and I are among the lucky ones,” Khalifa says. “Too many victims of parental abduction have suffered for much longer and are still hoping to be reunited one day.”

She calls for changes to law and policy that can help protect children and parents. Read the entire article.