On June 22, the House International Relations Committee held a hearing to examine the occurrences of international child abductions and the appropriate domestic and international measures needed to address the situation. International child abduction usually involves a child taken to another country by one parent and kept there illegally. The 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction calls for the immediate return of children to the country of residence prior to the abduction. Though 53 countries, including the U.S., have ratified the treaty, international abductions continue even in signatory countries. According to the State Department, more than 16,000 cases of international child abductions were reported in the past two decades.
Chair Henry Hyde (R-IL) expressed grave concern that despite diplomatic agreements to return the abducted children home to the U.S., many countries have been failing to abide by these obligations. “It is imperative that our government continues to press foreign governments to take seriously their obligations under The Hague Convention, and that we further expose their failures to adhere to international obligations.”
Rep. Hyde mentioned a bill (H.R. 4347) he sponsored, the International Assistance to Missing and Exploited Children Act of 2004. The bill would create a national registry of child custody orders, facilitate enforcement of valid custody/visitation determinations, authorize law enforcement to put into protective custody any child whose identity has been entered into the National Crime Information Center’s missing person file, allow the Internal Revenue Service to share taxpayer identification location information with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) and the State Department, provide the NCMEC with the same limited immunity enjoyed by State Department employees working in international child abduction cases, provide training for judges and lawyers, provide technical assistance and grants for legal assistance for victims, and require the secretary of state and the U.S. attorney general to conduct annual reports on federal parental kidnapping investigations, prosecutions, and extraditions.
Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs Maura Harty outlined the State Department’s efforts and success in returning children back to their families in the U.S. through its collaboration with the NCMEC, U.S. embassies abroad, and other law enforcement officials. The Office of Children’s Issues, in particular, works closely with left-behind parents and helps them choose the best course of action in each circumstance. Ms. Harty emphasized the department’s active role in engaging foreign governments on the issue of international parental child abduction. “The State Department strives to persuade other countries to live up to their Hague Abduction Convention treaty obligations and return children abducted to their countries back to the child’s habitual residence in the United States.”
Department of Justice (DOJ) Assistant Attorney General Daniel Bryant explained the commitment of the department in finding and protecting missing and exploited children. He described the DOJ’s efforts as: 1) providing financial and technical support to locate and return abducted children; 2) publishing guides for parents and others on how to deal with abductions; 3) providing a range of resources available to locate children and/or abductors for the use of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; and 4) providing assistance to parents through the Office for Victims of Crime. Despite the efforts of the DOJ, however, Mr. Bryant emphasized the difficulty in filing criminal charges in abduction cases and the relatively few numbers of prosecutions because of the sensitive and complex nature of the issue. According to Mr. Bryant, “criminal charges may be ill-advised, especially when the children remain in a foreign country. Parents are often willing to serve prison time if they can return to the foreign country–and the children they abducted–following their sentence…Furthermore, foreign authorities are often reluctant to cooperate with U.S. authorities on resolving child abduction cases if their nationals are liable to criminal prosecution.” He concluded by stating the commitment of the department to enhance the “capabilities to address international parental kidnapping with sensible and practicable legislative initiatives.”
Chair of the Board of Directors of the NCMEC and retired U.S. Senator Dennis DeConcini spoke regarding H.R. 4347. “This bill makes improvements to the law to help prevent and successfully resolve both domestic and international abductions of children.” He stated that “in family abduction cases, the battle is location of the child and the speedy resolution of the legal issues in the case so that the child can be legally settled without the child living in hiding or being snatched back and forth as happens in these cases.” Mr. DeConcini asserted that the major focus in resolving parental abduction cases should be placed on “preventing abductions from occurring in the first place.” He also recognized the importance of treating international child abduction as an international issue by equally committing to the return of children brought to the U.S. from another country. Mr. DeConcini concluded by saying that “we must ensure that the Hague Abduction convention remains a vibrant, living document that provides a uniform system for the safe return of abducted children no matter what country they are abducted from and where they are taken.”
Host of “America’s Most Wanted” and co-founder of the NCMEC John Walsh discussed the negative physical and psychological effect of international child abduction on children who “often exhibit a fear of authority, inability to bond, wet the bed and experience nightmares.” He also stated that many of the parents experiencing international child abduction have lost faith in the system and feel abandoned by their government. “We’ve got to change that, we’ve got to build a better system so kids are not stolen by one parent and hidden away from the left-behind parent.” Regarding H.R. 4347, he said it will “help us provide better ways to stop family abductions from occurring and provides us with better tools for getting the kids who are stolen, back to their homes.”
Thomas Sylvester described his personal experience in which his daughter was abducted to Austria by her mother nine years ago. The Hague Convention, he said, has failed to bring back his daughter Carina. “Unbelievably, it is not the law, the Austrian government and their courts, or the U.S. government and our courts who is in control of the situation. It is the abductor who is in complete control. This is a case of the Hague Convention at its absolute worst.” Although there has been considerable diplomatic intervention in Mr. Sylvester’s case, no effective follow up has taken place. He stressed that his case “serves as an excellent example of how the system does not work and has failed miserably.” In conclusion, Mr. Sylvester said that “it is necessary that all Parties to the Hague Convention continue to improve their participation in the treaty by adjusting their implementing legislation to make the treaty work effectively…Along with providing excellent service to the citizens of other party nations, our government must expect and in certain circumstances demand excellent participation in the treaty by those countries in exchange.”
