[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 144 (Thursday, October 23, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Page S11161]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          THE EXTRADITION TREATIES INTERPRETATION ACT OF 1997

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                  HELMS (AND BIDEN) AMENDMENT NO. 1523

  Mr. LOTT (for Mr. Helms, for himself and Mr. Biden) proposed an 
amendment to the bill (S. 1266) to interpret the term ``kidnapping'' in 
extradition treaties to which the United States is a party; as follows:

       Strike all after the enacting clause and insert the 
     following:

     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 ``kidnapping'' and ``kidnapping'' to include 
     parental kidnapping.

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