Heath Campbell, Adolf Hitler-Naming Dad, Dressed In Nazi Uniform To New Jersey Custody Hearing

http://www.ibtimes.com/dad-appears-nazi-uniform-child-custody-hearing-heath-campbell-says-i-wanna-be-father-photo-1288939

A neo-Nazi New Jersey man who lost custody of his four children — all of whom have Nazi-inspired names — showed up in family court Tuesday dressed in a Nazi uniform to petition for visitation rights to see his youngest son, 18-month-old Hons.  

“I’m going to tell the judge, I love my children; I wanna be a father, let me be it,” Heath Campbell told NBC10 Monday before the hearing. “Let me prove to the world that I am a good father.”

 Within 16 hours of Hons’ birth in November 2011, state child services representatives took custody of the newborn. He was Campbell’s fourth child with wife Deborah, a high school dropout. Hons’ siblings, Adolf Hitler Campbell, Joycelynn Aryan Nation Campbell and Honszlynn Hinler Jeannie Campbell, were taken into state custody nearly three years earlier after a state appeals court ruled that the family had a history of domestic violence that put the children at risk of abuse and neglect, ABC News reports.

The Campbells argued that they had never abused their children and that the state took them into custody because of their Nazi-inspired names. “They beg to come home all the time,” Deborah Campbell told NBC10 during a custody hearing in 2011. “They beg for their dad. They want to see their dad all the time.”

In December 2008, Heath and Deborah Campbell gained attention after a grocery store refused to print their son’s name, Adolf Hitler Campbell, on a birthday cake for his third birthday. Soon after, police and child protection services took the children into foster care.

Court documents show instances of domestic violence and abuse. The couple’s home in Holland Township, N.J., used skulls and knives as decorative features, and its windows were nailed shut. And Deborah apparently feared for her safety and the children’s welfare. A neighbor gave police a handwritten note by Deborah accusing her husband of trying to kill her and teaching her son how to kill.  

“Hes thrend to have me killed or kill me himself hes alread tried it a few times. Im scare to leave b/c I will be killed. Im afread that he might hurt my children if they are keeped in his care… He’s already stabed me with a screwdriver in the hand… He teaches my son how to kill someone at the age of 3.”

Later, Campbell said what she wrote was a lie and that her husband was a “perfect guy.” Heath Campbell, who could not read at the time of the initial trial, has been married twice before and has two children from those marriages. One of his ex-wives has a restraining order against Campbell and has moved to an Air Force base to “be away and safe from him.”

Heath Campbell says he’s determined to do whatever it takes to get his kids back.

“If I have to give up my Nazism, then so be it. I’ll do it,” Campbell told the Star-Ledger. The children are “more my heart and soul and everything than anything.”

Japan votes to adopt child abduction treaty

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-22620662

Japan’s parliament has voted to adopt an international treaty on child abductions, after years of pressure from Western countries.

The 1980 Hague Convention sets out procedures for handling cross-border child custody disputes.

Japan is the only country out of the Group of Eight industrialised nations (G8) yet to ratify the convention.

Its policies have been blamed for making it easy for Japanese mothers to remove children from foreign fathers.

Parents who have had their children abducted and taken to Japan by ex-spouses have describe the country as a “legal black hole” into which their children disappear, the BBC’s Rupert Wingfield-Hayes reports from Tokyo.

In February, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe expressed his support for the treaty after meeting US President Barack Obama.

The upper house of parliament voted to join the treaty on Wednesday. The lower house, which is more powerful, approved the treaty last month.

The government will ratify the treaty after finalising domestic procedures, including setting up a central authority responsible for locating abducted children and helping parents settle out of court where possible.

Japan says it aims to ratify the treaty by March 2014.

Divorced abroad

The 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction aims to protect the rights of both parents in custody cases.

“When I said I wanted to see [my daughter] on weekends, the judge and the attorneys in the room laughed”Paul Toland US Navy Commander

It seeks to ensure that custody decisions are made according to the laws of the country which provided the first residence for the children.

Under the convention, children who are taken away by a parent following a marriage breakdown must be returned to the country where they normally reside, if requested by the other parent.

However, campaigners say little will change until Japan reforms its own archaic divorce laws, our correspondent reports.

Japan’s family courts normally grant custody to one parent – traditionally the mother – after a divorce.

That parent is under no obligation to give the other parent access to the child, and it is not unusual for one parent to be cut out of their children’s lives forever.

There have been more than 200 international custody cases involving Japan. Many involve cases of Japanese nationals – married to non-Japanese nationals – who were divorced abroad taking their children back to Japan, despite joint custody rulings.

One high-profile case is that of US Navy Commander Paul Toland, who lost custody of his daughter Erika after his marriage with his Japanese wife broke down.

“The [family] court completely avoided any discussion regarding visitation with Erika,” he said in a statement in 2009.

“When I said I wanted to see Erika on weekends, the judge and the attorneys in the room laughed.”

He was unable to regain custody after his ex-wife killed herself – instead, his daughter now lives with her maternal grandmother, who Cdr Toland said in his 2009 statement had refused to allow access.

In 2010, the ambassadors of 12 countries, including the US, UK, Australia and Germany, signed a joint statement urging Japan to adopt the 1980 Hague Convention.

However, critics of the convention have previously argued that it could make it harder for Japanese women to flee abusive relationships abroad.