Not many people in Scotland will have heard of the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts (AFCC); their members don’t tend to advertise the acronym on their business card. In America, they get described as a family court cartel; a cabal. Their members include professionals who work in the family court industry; judges, lawyers, and those offering services such as contact centres, parenting education providers and expert witnesses. Delegates from well-known father’s rights groups are also in the networking association. Their members hold enormous power in family court disputes in the USA. Members are well known to serve their interests by passing business to one another in a referral system. They charge obscene amounts of money for some of their services.

The AFCC members generally hold traditional and patriarchal views varying in extremity; some members have links to the far Christian right. The AFCC are strong voices in favour of parental alienation, mandatory mediation and shared parenting, in law. When their experts are involved in a family court case in the UK, it has become general knowledge within the domestic abuse online community that this means danger ahead. Abuse victims know that the evidence of abuse is likely to get diminished or omitted from the court record in favour of contact taking place. The threat of a custody transfer to a dangerous, violent or sexually abusive parent looms. Many of the AFCC court reporters are unregulated and are self-proclaimed experts and specialists. They use strict and authoritarian ‘secret’ treatments to reunify terrified children with an abusive parent. Their outdated methods are harmful and cruel.

Articles are starting to emerge in Scotland in the media about social workers, welfare reporters and lawyers manipulating reports and evidence. In England & Wales, the family court review revealed the huge failings of CAFCASS stemming from the ideology indoctrinated amongst its staff. A pattern of abuse denial in favour of contact was evident in their court reports too. Board members of CAFCASS are also board members of the AFCC. When one looks further afield to Australia, New Zealand and Canada, it is clear; the same pattern of harm has developed in all countries where the AFCC influence decisions in the family courts, and influence social policy development.

The lack of transparency and accountability has long been a problem in the family courts. Judges in Scotland currently have no requirement to register their interests and reveal their links to organisations such as the AFCC. Journalists have strict reporting restrictions. Family Court opinions are not usually published. Domestic abuse victims are silenced and threatened with being held in contempt or sent to jail; preventing them from revealing the horrors they and their children get subjected to, on judges orders.

In Scotland, the Children's Bill narrowly avoided being hijacked by the AFCC’s lobbying attempts. They fought hard to include the term ‘parental alienation’, and the notion of shared parenting, in the bill; both highly damaging moves for domestic abuse victims and children. Parental alienation roots back to a theory based on no scientific evidence and created by a psychologically unsafe court reporter who had alarming and distasteful views on paedophilia and women. The fact that Gardner's theory influences decisions in courts despite not being in legislation is concerning enough.

The AFCC also tried to influence who would carry out all child welfare reports in Scotland. One must look more in-depth to see why these changes to legislation would benefit the AFCC members. Members of the Scottish Parliament boldly rejected the AFCC amendments on parental alienation, shared parenting and welfare reporters, sending a clear and loud message that this bills priority was protecting domestic abuse victims and children. It is common knowledge here that parental alienation is a tactical weapon in the family courts, used by abusers to gain parenting time and custody.

Domestic abuse victims shudder at the prospect of an AFCC judge, lawyer, mediator or mental health professional being anywhere near their court case, or their child. Abuse victims now tell each other which AFCC court reporters to avoid should they or their child be unlucky enough to have an assessment demanded by their abusive ex and ordered by the court. A victim knows that AFCC involvement means they will most likely be ‘stitched-up’. Their trauma from the abuse will be used as evidence against them as the assessor declares them to be unfit, unwell or hostile. The domestic abuse victim will be blamed for the child’s resistance to contact with the abusive parent, who has often estranged themselves from the child. The victim knows if the AFCC is involved, they will have a good chance of losing contact time or custody; they know the perpetrator's needs and rights will trump the best interests of the child.

Scotland is working tirelessly to become a trauma-informed nation; one which responds to family disputes compassionately, positively and safely. The AFCC’s methods cause insurmountable stress and anxiety for victims of abuse and children; they also destitute them in the process.

To protect the vulnerable further in the family courts, Scotland must implement not only regulation to the system but transparency and accountability. They must stay alert and continue to see beneath the guise of overseas predators whose ‘interests’ do not align with those seeking to protect domestic abuse victims and children from harm.