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Welcome to iStand Parent Network

We empower families to bring their children home from International Parental Child Abduction. We also work to educate and improve public policy to prevent this awful crime against children and families.

Who Are We

We are the parents and supporters of abducted children. Some of us have successfully recovered our kids and brought them home.  Most of us remain in an unrelenting battle at home and abroad to enforce our fundamental right to parent and to provide our children regular and consistent access to our loving and nurturing presence.  

 

This is not a contest of wills. Parental abduction, wrongful removal, and wrongful retention is child abuse, a crime, and it must cease.​​ 

Our Mission

iStand Parent Network empowers parents to recover their children from international parental child abduction and wrongful retention and advocates for domestic and international policy reform that returns children home.

Our Sunset

After a decade of advocacy for children and families, iStand Parent Network Inc. sunset our wonderful organization on September 28, 2023, during the 10th International Parents Conference & Sunset Gala in Washington DC. We were deeply honored to be chosen as a beacon of hope and a pathway to reunification for so many families. We also mobilized resources and focused public attention on this issue in unprecedented ways. We look forward to the next generation and next season of advocacy--carried on by those who found their 'people' and their purpose through our shared experiences and collective to End International Parental Child Abduction, and return America's Stolen Children Home. 

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We urge you to to continue taking action to reunite all abducted children by joining the Coalition to End International Parental Abduction @ endchildabduction.org.

The Coalition

The Crime of International Parental Kidnapping U.S. Helsinki  Commission Briefing

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On October 25, 2017, Leo Zagaris, teen survivor of wrongful retention in Greece, shared his experiences of separation from his mother, sister and the life he'd known in Indiana during a live-stream briefing to the Commission on Cooperation and Security in Europe, also known as the Helsinki Commission. 

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He was joined by his mother, iStand Co-Founder Alissa Zagaris, who successfully waged the fight to bring Leo home. iStand parent Augusto Frisancho, whose sons are abducted to Slovakia.  iStand President and mother of a returned child Dr. Noelle Hunter also delivered remarks alongside Jeffery Morehouse, Mochi's father and executive director of Bring Abducted Children Home. 

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The briefing was convened by Commission Co-Chairman U.S. Rep. Christopher Smith, a longtime advocate for children in Washington and around the globe.

Read Leo's testimony here.

Watch the Briefing in its entirety here.

Please help parents get tools to bring their children home!

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According to the U.S. State Department, each year at least 1,000 children are abducted by a parent from the U.S. to a foreign nation. We are working to illustrate the prevalence of this pandemic problem.  If your child has been abducted, wrongfully removed or wrongfully retained in a foreign country, please add them to our map. 

One of our main goals is to prevent international child abduction.  We create public awareness through various methods.  We educate our children, parents, schools, agencies, political leaders, lawyers and judges to prevent abductions and keep children safe and in their country of habitual residence.  

Many resources are available to parents whose child(ren) have been abducted, wrongfully removed or wrongfully retained in a foreign nation. IPCA is resolved through coordination of intricate web of government agencies, courts and foreign authorities that offer various means of resolution.  However, most parents don't know where to start. 

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