[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 45 (Tuesday, April 11, 2000)]
[House]
[Page H2018]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          THE INTERNATIONAL ABDUCTION OF REBECCA COLLINS' SON

  (Mr. LAMPSON asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. LAMPSON. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to talk about the continued 
problem that is of utmost importance, and that is the abduction of 
American children to foreign countries. The gentleman from Ohio (Mr. 
Chabot) and I introduced legislation with 126 original cosponsors, a 
testament to the importance of this issue.
  Rebecca Collins, a mother from North Carolina, was granted temporary 
custody of her son while her divorce was pending. In July of 1991, her 
ex-husband took her son to Germany during a scheduled visitation and 
the U.S. police filed charges against him.
  In August of that year, Rebecca was awarded custody and the immediate 
return of her son was ordered. Despite the decision, a lower German 
court transferred custody to the father. Rebecca was granted access 
rights, but the German court refused to enforce these rights when the 
father failed to abide by them.
  Rebecca's son was 7 months old at the time of the abduction. He is 
now 8 years old, and she has not seen him at all since the abduction. 
She spoke with him once on the phone in 1997, but her son has been told 
that his father's new partner is his natural mother.
  Mr. Speaker, American children and their parents should not be kept 
apart by court systems that refuse to comply with the law. We must make 
sure that signatory countries of the Hague Convention of the Civil 
Aspects of International Child Abduction abide by their agreement.

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