Senate Committee Resolution Addresses International Child Abduction

On September 19, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved en bloc, by voice vote, a resolution to address international parental child abduction (S. Res. 543).

Sponsored by Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), the resolution contains findings, including:

• The abduction of a child by one parent is a heartbreaking loss for the left-behind parent and deprives the child of a relationship with two loving parents;
• According to the Report on Compliance with the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction [the Convention] of the U.S. Department of State from April 2010, research shows that abducted children are at risk of significant short- and long-term problems, including ‘‘anxiety, eating problems, nightmares, mood swings, sleep disturbances, [and] aggressive behavior’’;
• Since 1988, the U.S., which has a treaty relationship under the Convention with 69 other countries, has agreed with its treaty partners to follow the terms of the Convention, which provides a legal framework for securing the prompt return of wrongfully removed or retained children to the countries of their habitual residence where competent courts can make decisions on issues of custody and the best interests of the children;
• According to the U.S. Department of State, the number of new cases of international child abduction from the U.S. increased from 579 in 2006 to 941 in 2011;
• In 2011, those 941 cases involved 1,367 children who were reported abducted from the U.S. by a parent and taken to a foreign country;
• In 2011, more than 660 children who were abducted from the U.S. and taken to a foreign country were returned to the U.S.;
• Seven of the top ten countries to which children from the U.S. were most frequently abducted in 2011 are parties to the Hague Abduction Convention, including Mexico, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, Ecuador, Brazil, and Colombia;
• Japan, India, and Egypt are not parties to the Convention and were also among the top ten countries to which children in the United States were most frequently abducted in 2011; and
• In many countries, such as Japan and India, international parental child abduction is not considered a crime, and custody rulings made by courts in the U.S. are not typically recognized by courts in those countries.

The Senate “urges countries identified by the U.S. Department of State as noncompliant with the Convention to fulfill their commitment under international law to expeditiously implement the provisions of the Convention” and “calls on all countries to become a party to the Convention and to promptly institute measures to equitably and transparently address cases of international parental child abduction.” The Senate encourages the U.S. to “vigorously pursue the return of each child abducted by a parent from the U.S. to another country through all appropriate means, facilitate access by the left-behind parent if the child is not returned, and, where appropriate, seek the extradition of the parent that abducted the child; improve the prevention of international parental child abduction from the U.S.; and ensure that effective and timely assistance is provided to U.S. citizens who are parents of children abducted from the U.S. and taken to foreign countries.”