[Congressional Bills 105th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1266 Referred in House (RFH)]







105th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 1266


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                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            October 24, 1997

          Referred to the Committee on International Relations

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                                 AN ACT


 
 To interpret the term ``kidnaping'' in extradition treaties to which 
                     the United States is a party.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Extradition Treaties Interpretation 
Act of 1997''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds that--
            (1) each year, several hundred children are kidnapped by a 
        parent in violation of law, court order, or legally binding 
        agreement and brought to, or taken from, the United States;
            (2) until the mid-1970's, parental abduction generally was 
        not considered a criminal offense in the United States;
            (3) since the mid-1970's, United States criminal law has 
        evolved such that parental abduction is now a criminal offense 
        in each of the 50 States and the District of Columbia;
            (4) in enacting the International Parental Kidnapping Crime 
        Act of 1993 (Public Law 103-173; 107 Stat. 1998; 18 U.S.C. 
        1204), Congress recognized the need to combat parental 
        abduction by making the act of international parental 
        kidnapping a Federal criminal offense;
            (5) many of the extradition treaties to which the United 
        States is a party specifically list the offenses that are 
        extraditable and use the word ``kidnapping'', but it has been 
        the practice of the United States not to consider the term to 
        include parental abduction because these treaties were 
        negotiated by the United States prior to the development in 
        United States criminal law described in paragraphs (3) and (4);
            (6) the more modern extradition treaties to which the 
        United States is a party contain dual criminality provisions, 
        which provide for extradition where both parties make the 
        offense a felony, and therefore it is the practice of the 
        United States to consider such treaties to include parental 
        abduction if the other foreign state party also considers the 
        act of parental abduction to be a criminal offense; and
            (7) this circumstance has resulted in a disparity in United 
        States extradition law which should be rectified to better 
        protect the interests of children and their parents.

SEC. 3. INTERPRETATION OF EXTRADITION TREATIES.

    For purposes of any extradition treaty to which the United States 
is a party, Congress authorizes the interpretation of the terms 
``kidnaping'' and ``kidnapping'' to include parental kidnapping.

            Passed the Senate October 23, 1997.

            Attest:

                                                    GARY SISCO,

                                                             Secretary.