[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 9]
[Senate]
[Page 12203]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



              URGING COMPLIANCE WITH THE HAGUE CONVENTION

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. In my capacity as a Senator from Kansas, I 
request unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration 
of H. Con. Res. 293.
  The clerk will report the concurrent resolution by title.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

       A concurrent resolution (H. Con. Res. 293) urging 
     compliance with the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of 
     International Child Abduction.

  There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the 
concurrent resolution.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. In my capacity as a Senator from Kansas, I ask 
unanimous consent that the concurrent resolution be agreed to, the 
preamble be agreed to, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, 
and any statements relating to this resolution be printed in the 
Record, and, without objection, it is so ordered.
  The resolution (H. Con. Res. 293) was agreed to.
  The preamble was agreed to.
  The resolution, with its preamble, reads as follows:

                            H. Con. Res. 293

       Whereas the Department of State reports that at any given 
     time there are 1,000 open cases of American children either 
     abducted from the United States or wrongfully retained in a 
     foreign country;
       Whereas many more cases of international child abductions 
     are not reported to the Department of State;
       Whereas the situation has worsened since 1993, when 
     Congress estimated the number of American children abducted 
     from the United States and wrongfully retained in foreign 
     countries to be more than 10,000;
       Whereas Congress has recognized the gravity of 
     international child abduction in enacting the International 
     Parental Kidnapping Crime Act of 1993 (18 U.S.C. 1204), the 
     Parental Kidnapping Prevention Act (28 U.S.C. 1738a), and 
     substantial reform and reporting requirements for the 
     Department of State in the fiscal years 1998-1999 and 2000-
     2001 Foreign Relations Authorization Acts;
       Whereas the United States became a contracting party in 
     1988 to the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of 
     International Child Abduction (in this concurrent resolution 
     referred to as the ``Hague Convention'') and adopted 
     effective implementing legislation in the International Child 
     Abduction Remedies Act (42 U.S.C. 11601 et seq.);
       Whereas the Hague Convention establishes mutual rights and 
     duties between and among its contracting states to expedite 
     the return of children to the state of their habitual 
     residence, as well as to ensure that rights of custody and of 
     access under the laws of one contracting state are 
     effectively respected in other contracting states, without 
     consideration of the merits of any underlying child custody 
     dispute;
       Whereas article 13 of the Hague Convention provides a 
     narrow exception to the requirement for prompt return of 
     children, which exception releases the requested state from 
     its obligation to return a child to the country of the 
     child's habitual residence if it is established that there is 
     a ``grave risk'' that the return would expose the child to 
     ``physical or psychological harm or otherwise place the child 
     in an intolerable situation'' or ``if the child objects to 
     being returned and has attained an age and degree of maturity 
     at which it is appropriate to take account of the child's 
     views'';
       Whereas some contracting states, for example Germany, 
     routinely invoke article 13 as a justification for nonreturn, 
     rather than resorting to it in a small number of wholly 
     exceptional cases;
       Whereas the National Center for Missing and Exploited 
     Children (NCMEC), the only institution of its kind, was 
     established in the United States for the purpose of assisting 
     parents in recovering their missing children;
       Whereas article 21 of the Hague Convention provides that 
     the central authorities of all parties to the Convention are 
     obligated to cooperate with each other in order to promote 
     the peaceful enjoyment of parental access rights and the 
     fulfillment of any conditions to which the exercise of such 
     rights may be subject, and to remove, as far as possible, all 
     obstacles to the exercise of such rights;
       Whereas some contracting states fail to order or enforce 
     normal visitation rights for parents of abducted or 
     wrongfully retained children who have not been returned under 
     the terms of the Hague Convention; and
       Whereas the routine invocation of the article 13 exception, 
     denial of parental visitation of children, and the failure by 
     several contracting parties, most notably Austria, Germany, 
     Honduras, Mexico, and Sweden, to fully implement the 
     Convention deprives the Hague Convention of the spirit of 
     mutual confidence upon which its success depends: Now, 
     therefore, be it
       Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate 
     concurring), That Congress urges--
       (1) all contracting parties to the Hague Convention, 
     particularly European civil law countries that consistently 
     violate the Hague Convention such as Austria, Germany and 
     Sweden, to comply fully with both the letter and spirit of 
     their international legal obligations under the Convention;
       (2) all contracting parties to the Hague Convention to 
     ensure their compliance with the Hague Convention by enacting 
     effective implementing legislation and educating their 
     judicial and law enforcement authorities;
       (3) all contracting parties to the Hague Convention to 
     honor their commitments and return abducted or wrongfully 
     retained children to their place of habitual residence 
     without reaching the merits of any underlying custody dispute 
     and ensure parental access rights by removing obstacles to 
     the exercise of such rights;
       (4) the Secretary of State to disseminate to all Federal 
     and State courts the Department of State's annual report to 
     Congress on Hague Convention compliance and related matters; 
     and
       (5) each contracting party to the Hague Convention to 
     further educate its central authority and local law 
     enforcement authorities regarding the Hague Convention, the 
     severity of the problem of international child abduction, and 
     the need for immediate action when a parent of an abducted 
     child seeks their assistance.

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