Action Against Abduction, formerly known as Parents and Abducted Children Together (PACT), is an international

non-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

organisation which specialises in fighting

international child abduction The term international child abduction is generally synonymous with international ''parental kidnapping,'' ''child snatching'', and ''child stealing.'' However, the more precise legal usage of ''international child abduction'' originates in ...

and in helping law enforcement agencies find missing children.

Establishment and overview

Action Against Abduction was established as PACT by Catherine Meyer in 1999. 10 October 2007, PACT and the National Missing Persons Bureau launched Missing Children TV, a TV channel showing photographs and information on some of the 100,000 children that go missing every year. Electronics Health Media (EHM) screened the channel in various hospital waiting rooms around the country. In 2012, PACT helped produce a website called "Missingkids", allowing law enforcement to disseminate photographs and descriptions of missing children alongside details of the circumstances of their disappearance. In 2014, PACT produced the British Child Abduction Hub, an information repository allowing for information related to child abduction to be spread publicly via a "Child Rescue Alert", similar in concept to the American Amber Alert. The organization's name was changed to Action Against Abduction in 2015.

Partnerships

Over the years, PACT has partnered with various organizations to raise public awareness of the plight of missing and abducted children. British grocery chain

Tesco Tesco plc () is a British multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Welwyn Garden City, England. In 2011 it was the third-largest retailer in the world measured by gross revenues and the ninth-largest in th ...

has partnered with PACT since 2000 by displaying posters of missing children in select stores. In 2006, engineering and management services corporation

Emcor EMCOR Group is an engineering and construction company based in Norwalk, Connecticut, US. It comprises 80 or more operating companies, has approximately 170 locations and employs more than 33,000 people. The company was listed as number 375 on ...

partnered with PACT by placing posters of missing children in the rear windows of some of their vehicles. In March 2009, Emcor announced that four children featured on their posters had been found.

Documentary and research papers

PACT has produced a documentary entitled ''Victims of Another War'' that examines the damaging impact on three adults of their abduction as children. PACT has also produced a number of reports and research papers dealing with abduction and child protection services: * ''Every Five Minutes'' (2005), which examined available data to try to establish the number of missing children in the UK. * ''A Postcode Lottery'' (2006), which discussed the services rendered by various child protection agencies in the UK. * ''Beyond Every Five Minutes'' (2007). * ''Taken'' (2013), which examined the extent of child abduction in the UK. * In February 2015, PACT released a report examining the number of child abductions and kidnappings reported to police in England, Wales and Northern Ireland from 2012 to 2014.

Financial controversy

In May 2011, PACT's finances were called into question by the Mandrake gossip column of the ''

Daily Telegraph Daily or The Daily may refer to: Journalism * Daily newspaper, newspaper issued on five to seven day of most weeks * ''The Daily'' (podcast), a podcast by ''The New York Times'' * ''The Daily'' (News Corporation), a defunct US-based iPad new ...

''. PACT replied to these accusations in a letter to the Telegraph.

References

External links