The Foreign Service Journal, April 2003

U.S. court denied the return of a child to a country where terrorist violence is commonplace. Or if more than a year has elapsed since the abduction or retention, the court can find that the child is “resettled.” A return can also be denied if the child has strong objections to return and is “of sufficient age and maturity” to have his or her wishes taken into consideration by the court. For exam- ple, a Polish court denied the return of a 14-year old who had immigrated to the United States with his parents but was abducted back to Poland by his father within six months of their arrival. The child testified in court that his school classmates in the U.S. teased him cruelly about his accent and he was beaten up and robbed several times by street gangs. School and police reports corroborated his testi- mony. Treaty Partners We now have 52 Hague Convention treaty partners (see table, p. 59). The top destination countries where the Hague Convention is in force are Mexico, the United Kingdom, Germany, Israel and Canada. There are approximately 15 other countries that have acceded to the convention, but which the U.S. has not yet accepted as treaty part- ners. Because of past experience with governments that did not fulfill their responsibilities under the convention, posts in prospective treaty partner countries are asked to evaluate the government’s ability and willingness to meet its treaty obligations. These factors include: whether the country is able to locate missing children and report on any gender or nationalistic bias in child custody cases; whether the judiciary is subject to financial or political pressures; and whether there are mechanisms to enforce civil judg- ments. Only after a careful review does State recognize the country’s accession to the convention. Treaty partners meet once every four years at The Hague in the Netherlands. At the Fifth Special Commission meeting of the Hague Convention, held Sept. 27-October 1, 2002, delegations approved the first chapters of a “Good Practices” guide that will provide useful information to both new and old members. Regrettably, the convention is not available as a remedy for left-behind parents whose children have been abducted to non-member countries, most commonly the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Jordan and Japan. In those situations, the parent must decide whether to pursue cus- tody through the courts of that coun- try. While the U.S. government can- not pay legal expenses or court fees, act as an attorney, or represent a left- behind parent in court, CI can pro- vide information on retaining a for- eign attorney, lists of attorneys who practice in a particular country, and in some cases, general information on child custody issues and precedents. Much of this information is available on the Bureau’s Web site: http://www. travel.state.gov/children’s_issues.html . In addition, consular officers abroad make every effort to alert the appro- priate foreign authorities to any evi- dence of child abuse and/or neglect, and to monitor judicial and adminis- trative proceedings. An Ounce of Prevention CI firmly believes that the prover- bial ounce of prevention can avoid a pound of cure. Many of our outreach efforts to the judiciary and attorney networks, the law enforcement com- munity, Congress and the general public are focused on preventative measures. CI has responsibility for the Children’s Passport Issuance Alert program — a database of over 2,800 names. Any parent, legal guardian and/or legal representative can request that a U.S. citizen child’s name be entered as a lookout. Some requests simply ask that the person be notified if a passport application is submitted; others, backed up by sup- porting legal documentation such as custody orders, may ask that a pass- port not be issued. When a passport application is submitted at any of the 16 U.S. passport agencies or at any U.S. embassy or consulate world- wide, and a child custody hold appears, that passport cannot be issued without clearance from CI. Holds remain in the system until the person who placed the hold asks that it be removed or until the child reaches 18. In 2002, CI received an average of 235 passport hold requests each month. Another helpful measure is the Reid Amendment that took effect in July 2001. The signatures of both par- ents are now required on all U.S. passport applications for children under the age of 14. Exceptions are made if the applying parent produces a letter of consent from the other par- ent; a court order of sole custody; or a death certificate for the other parent. There are also exigent circumstances in which a passport may be issued if the child will be endangered, though these situations are more likely to occur overseas and might involve an evacuation or other emergency. In December 2000 a new database to track international child custody cases was installed in CI. Eventually, portions of this database will be avail- able to overseas posts, NCMEC and the law enforcement community. Still, there is much work to be done. For example, there are many countries for which we do not yet have flyers describing child custody issues. But our overseas posts are being asked to bring child abduction issues to the attention of foreign governments more often and at higher levels than before. So there should be no doubt of the State Department’s ongoing commitment to resolving such cases wherever they may arise. 60 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / A P R I L 2 0 0 3