[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 1326 Introduced in House (IH)]
111th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. RES. 1326
Calling on the Government of Japan to immediately address the growing
problem of abduction to and retention of United States citizen minor
children in Japan, to work closely with the Government of the United
States to return these children to their custodial parent or to the
original jurisdiction for a custody determination in the United States,
to provide left-behind parents immediate access to their children, and
to adopt without delay the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects
of International Child Abduction.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
May 5, 2010
Mr. Moran of Virginia (for himself, Mr. Smith of New Jersey, Mr.
Hinchey, Mr. Gary G. Miller of California, Mrs. Blackburn, and Mr.
Becerra) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the
Committee on Foreign Affairs
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
Calling on the Government of Japan to immediately address the growing
problem of abduction to and retention of United States citizen minor
children in Japan, to work closely with the Government of the United
States to return these children to their custodial parent or to the
original jurisdiction for a custody determination in the United States,
to provide left-behind parents immediate access to their children, and
to adopt without delay the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects
of International Child Abduction.
Whereas Japan is an important partner with the United States and shares
interests in the areas of economy, defense, the promotion of global
peace and prosperity, and the mutual protection of the human rights of
the two nations' respective citizens in the increasingly integrated
global society;
Whereas the Government of Japan acceded to the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights that states under Article 16 (1), ``Men and women of full age,
without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the
right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights
as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution'', and Article 16
(3), ``The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society
and is entitled to protection by society and the State'';
Whereas the Government of Japan acceded in 1979 to the International Covenant on
Civil and Political Rights that states ``States Parties to the present
Covenant shall take appropriate steps to ensure equality of rights and
responsibilities of spouses as to marriage, during marriage and at its
dissolution. In the case of dissolution, provision shall be made for the
necessary protection of any children [Article 23]'';
Whereas according to Japan's National Institute of Population and Social
Security Research, 44,701 marriages between a Japanese national and a
foreigner were registered in Japan in 2006, and 17,102 divorces were
registered in Japan in 2006 between a Japanese national and foreigner;
Whereas since 1994 the Office of Children's Issues (OCI) at the United States
Department of State had opened 194 cases involving 269 United States
citizen minor children abducted to or wrongfully retained in Japan, and
as of March 25, 2010, OCI had 85 open cases involving 121 United States
citizen minor children abducted to or wrongfully retained in Japan;
Whereas since the signing of the Treaty of Peace with Japan (San Francisco
Treaty) between the Allied Powers and the Government of Japan in 1951,
the Japanese Government has never issued and enforced a legal decision
to return a single abducted child to the United States;
Whereas Japan has not acceded to the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects
of International Child Abduction (the Hague Convention), resulting in
the continued absence of an immediate civil remedy that as a matter of
urgency would enable the expedited return of abducted children to their
custodial parent in the United States where appropriate, or otherwise
immediately allow access to their United States parent;
Whereas the Government of Japan is the only G-7 country that has not acceded to
the Hague Convention;
Whereas the Hague Convention would not apply to abductions occurring before the
accession of Japan to the Hague Convention, requiring, therefore, that
Japan create a separate parallel process to resolve the abductions of
all United States citizen minor children who currently remain wrongfully
removed to or retained in Japan, including the 121 United States citizen
minor children who have been reported to the United States Department of
State and who are being held in Japan against the wishes of their parent
in the United States and, in many cases, in direct violation of a valid
United States court order;
Whereas the Hague Convention provides enumerated defenses designed to provide
protection to children alleged to be subjected to physical or
psychological abuse in the left-behind country;
Whereas United States laws against domestic violence extend protection and
redress to Japanese spouses;
Whereas there are numerous acknowledged cases, such as the Jade and Michael
Elias case, of Japanese consulates located within the United States
issuing or reissuing travel documents of dual-national minor children in
violation of United States court orders restricting travel and in
violation of United States Federal criminal parental kidnapping
statutes;
Whereas there are numerous cases in which the actions of the Government of Japan
evidence a disregard of United States law and jurisdiction, other cases
show indifference to the United States and customary international
jurisprudence in the area of family law, which overwhelmingly reflects
the worldwide preference for the resolution of parenting disputes by
negotiated joint custody;
Whereas Japan's existing family law system does not recognize joint custody nor
actively enforce parental access agreements for either its own nationals
or foreigners, there is little hope for minor children to have contact
with the noncustodial parent in violation of internationally recognized
and protected rights;
Whereas there exists no due process within the Japanese family court system for
the redress of such disputes, and the existing system has no recognized
process to enforce a custody or parental access order from outside of
Japan or within it, without the voluntary cooperation of the abducting
parent or guardian;
Whereas the Government of Japan has repeatedly claimed to foreign governments
that parental child abduction is not considered a crime in Japan despite
the fact that Article 3 of the Japanese Penal Code does indeed make it a
crime for a Japanese citizen to abduct a child and move the child across
national borders, even if the child is moved to Japan;
Whereas the Government of Japan has refused to prosecute an abducting parent or
relative criminally when that parent or relative abducts the child into
Japan;
Whereas according to the United States Department of State's April 2008 Report
on Compliance with the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of
International Child Abduction, abducted children are at risk of serious
emotional and psychological problems and have been found to experience
anxiety, eating problems, nightmares, mood swings, sleep disturbances,
aggressive behavior, resentment, guilt, and fearfulness, and as adults
may struggle with identity issues, their own personal relationships, and
parenting;
Whereas left-behind parents may encounter substantial psychological, emotional,
and financial problems, and many may not have the financial resources to
pursue civil or criminal remedies for the return of their children in
foreign courts or political systems;
Whereas Erika Toland was abducted in 2003 from Negishi United States Navy Family
housing in Yokohama to Tokyo, Japan, by her now deceased mother and is
being held by her Japanese maternal grandmother, while being denied
access to her father since 2004;
Whereas Melissa Braden was covertly abducted from her home in 2006 by her mother
to Japan in violation of previous Los Angeles Superior Court orders
giving both parents access to the child and prohibiting international
travel (travel to Japan) with the child by either parent and has since
been denied any contact with her father;
Whereas Kai Hachiya was abducted in 2006 to Japan by his father, who had been
found by a court of competent jurisdiction to have physically and
mentally abused Kai's mother who had been awarded sole custody in the
State of Hawaii, and as a result, Kai has had limited contact with his
mother;
Whereas Isaac and Rebecca Savoie were abducted in 2009 to Japan by their mother
in violation of a Tennessee State court order of joint custody and
Tennessee statutes, and have been denied any access or communication
with their father, despite their father having been awarded sole custody
of them by a United States court;
Whereas Karina Garcia was abducted to Japan in 2008 by her mother, who was
ordered by the United States courts to return Karina to the care of her
sole custodian father in the United States, but the order to return of
the child has not been granted even though the sole custody order had
been recognized by the Osaka High Court;
Whereas United States citizen minor children who have been abducted to Japan are
being deprived of their United States heritage;
Whereas, on October 16, 2009, the Ambassadors to Japan of Australia, Canada,
France, Italy, New Zealand, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United
States, all parties to the Hague Convention, called upon Japan to accede
to the Hague Convention and meanwhile to identify and implement measures
to enable parents who are separated from their children to establish
contact with them and to visit them;
Whereas, on January 30, 2010, the Ambassadors to Japan of Australia, France, New
Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States, the Charges
d'Affaires ad interim of Canada and Spain, and the Deputy Head of
Mission of Italy, called on Japan's Minister of Foreign Affairs,
submitted their concerns over the increase in international parental
abduction cases involving Japan and affecting their nationals, and again
urged Japan to sign the Hague Convention;
Whereas the Governments of the United States and the French Republic have
recently established bilateral commissions with Japan's Ministry of
Foreign Affairs to share information on and seek resolution of
outstanding Japanese parental child abduction cases;
Whereas the bilateral commission is limited by the fact that it does not
currently include Japan's Ministry of Justice, which has jurisdiction
over family law;
Whereas Japan's Justice Minister Keiko Chiba said upon her appointment that she
is determined to show that Japan ``is very proactive'' in adopting
international protocols and conventions that are the ``international
standard''; and
Whereas it is critical for the Governments of the United States and Japan to
work together to prevent future incidents of international parental
child abduction to Japan, which damages children, families, and Japan's
national image with the United States: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That--
(1) the House of Representatives--
(A) condemns the abduction and retention of all
minor children being held in Japan away from their
United States parents in violation of their human
rights and United States and international law;
(B) calls on the Government of Japan to immediately
facilitate the resolution of all abduction cases, to
recognize United States court orders governing persons
subject to jurisdiction in a United States court, and
to make immediately possible access and communication
for all children with their left-behind parents;
(C) calls on the Government of Japan to include
Japan's Ministry of Justice in work with the Government
of the United States to facilitate the identification
and location of all United States minor citizen
children alleged to have been wrongfully removed to or
retained in Japan and for the immediate establishment
of a protocol for the resolution of existing cases of
abduction, interference with parental access to
children, and violations of United States court orders;
(D) calls on the Government of Japan to establish
immediately a protocol and timetable to amend its Civil
Code to allow for enforceable rights of parental access
and communication between minor children and their
divorced or separated parents including parents who are
not Japanese citizens;
(E) calls on the Government of Japan to review and
amend its consular procedures to ensure that travel
documents for minor children are not issued in
violation of United States court orders;
(F) calls on Japan to accede to the 1980 Hague
Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child
Abduction without delay and to promptly establish
judicial and enforcement procedures to facilitate
credibly the immediate return of children to their
habitual residence and to establish protocols for the
organization of rights of international parental
access; and
(G) calls on the President of the United States and
the Secretary of State to seek immediately to identify
credibly all United States citizen minor children who
have been wrongfully removed to and who are retained
currently in Japan and to raise the issue of abduction
and wrongful retention of those United States citizen
minor children in Japan with Japanese officials and
domestic and international press; and
(2) it is the sense of the House of Representatives that
the United States should--
(A) recognize the issue of child abduction to and
retention of United States citizen minor children in
Japan as a central foreign policy issue of paramount
importance to the United States within the context of
its bilateral relationship with Japan;
(B) work with the Government of Japan to enact
consular procedures and legal agreements to prevent
parental abduction to and retention of United States
citizen minor children in Japan;
(C) encourage the Government of Japan to adopt the
policy of not issuing duplicate passports when a United
States judge has restricted a child's travel or ordered
the surrender of passports and to otherwise require
notarized signatures from both parents before issuing a
passport to a child;
(D) review its advisory services made available to
United States citizens from the Department of State,
the Department of Justice, and other government
agencies to ensure that effective and timely assistance
is given to United States citizens in preventing the
incidence of wrongful retention or removal of minor
children and acting to obtain the expeditious return of
their children from Japan;
(E) review its advisory services made available to
members of the United States Armed Forces, particularly
those stationed in Japan by the Department of Defense
and the United States Armed Forces, to ensure that
effective and timely assistance is given to them,
including providing legal assistance in preventing the
incidence of wrongful retention or removal of minor
children and acting to obtain the expeditious return of
their dependent children from Japan at the conclusion
of their tour of duty in Japan;
(F) call upon the Secretary of Defense to include
the issues of child abduction and the protection of
members of the United States Armed Forces and their
families stationed abroad in any current or future
status of forces agreement;
(G) call upon the Secretary of State to enact
immediately a Memorandum of Understanding with the
Government of Japan to establish a bilateral protocol
with procedures to address immediately any parental
child abduction or access issue reported to the United
States Department of State; and
(H) urge the Department of State to include
international child abduction and Japan's actions
regarding abductions as a human rights violation under
its Country Reports on Human Rights Practices.
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