Foreign Affairs: Federal Response to International Parental Child
Abductions (Testimony, 10/14/1999, GAO/T-NSIAD-00-44).

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the federal response
to international parental child abductions, focusing on: (1) problems
with the federal government's response to parental child abduction; and
(2) how the federal government is attempting to improve its response.

GAO noted that: (1) there are a number of problems and issues related to
the federal response to international child abduction; (2) these
problems have been identified by the key agencies involved--the
Departments of State and Justice and the National Center for Missing and
Exploited Children--as well as left-behind parents and others; (3)
together, they present obstacles to left-behind parents in their
attempts to locate, gain access to, and return their children; (4) four
problems and issues have received substantial attention: (a) gaps in
federal services to left-behind parents, which make it difficult for
parents to recover their abducted children; (b) weaknesses within the
existing State Department case-tracking process, which impair case and
program coordination; (c) lack of systematic and aggressive diplomatic
efforts to improve international responses to parental child abductions;
and (d) limited use of the International Parental Kidnapping Crime Act
of 1993 to pursue abducting parents and bring them to justice; (5) the
State and Justice Departments have developed recommendations, which they
believe will address most of the problems if implemented; (6) while GAO
found that action has been taken to implement a number of the
recommendations, many await further action and most require resource
commitments; (7) in addition, some of the recommended actions are not
expected to be implemented for several years; and (8) these shortcomings
raise questions about the likelihood the recommendations will be put in
place.

--------------------------- Indexing Terms -----------------------------

 REPORTNUM:  T-NSIAD-00-44
     TITLE:  Foreign Affairs: Federal Response to International
	     Parental Child Abductions
      DATE:  10/14/1999
   SUBJECT:  International cooperation
	     Law enforcement
	     Children
	     Child custody
	     Parents
	     Law enforcement information systems
	     Crimes or offenses
	     International agreements
IDENTIFIER:  Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International
	     Child Abduction

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Before the Committee on International Relations,
House of Representatives

For Release on Delivery
Expected at
10:00 a.m., EDT
Thursday,
October 14, 1999

Foreign affairs

Federal Response to International Parental Child Abductions   

Statement of Jess T. Ford, Associate Director, International Relations and
Trade Issues, National Security and International Affairs
Division
*****************

*****************

GAO/T-NSIAD-00-44

 

Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee:

I am pleased to be here today to discuss our preliminary observations on
the federal government's response to international parental child
abduction./Footnote1/ The State Department estimates that about 1,000
children annually are abducted from the United States by one of their
parents./Footnote2/ When these cases are reported to authorities, the
State and Justice Departments assume roles in locating the abducted
children, reporting on their welfare, intervening diplomatically to secure
their return, and bringing abductors to justice. However, left-behind
parents and others have raised a number of concerns about the federal
response to these child abductions.

Because of these concerns, you asked us to (1) examine problems with the
federal government's response to parental child abduction and (2) examine
how the federal government is attempting to improve its response. Today, I
will discuss several of the problem areas that have been identified and
what actions federal agencies plan to take to address them. We plan to
complete our work and provide a report to this Committee later this year.

Summary
-------

There are a number of problems and issues related to the federal response
to international parental child abduction. These problems have been
identified by the key agencies involved--the State and Justice Departments
and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children--as well as
left-behind parents and others. Together, they present obstacles to 
left-behind parents in their attempts to locate, gain access to, and
return their children. Four problems and issues have received substantial
attention. These are

o gaps in federal services to left-behind parents, which make it
  difficult for parents to recover their abducted children;

o weaknesses within the existing State Department case-tracking process,
  which impair case and program coordination;

o lack of systematic and aggressive diplomatic efforts to improve
  international responses to parental child abductions; and

o limited use of the International Parental Kidnapping Crime Act of
  1993/Footnote3/ to pursue abducting parents and bring them to justice.

The State and Justice Departments have developed recommendations, which
they believe will address most of the problems if implemented. While we
found that action has been taken to implement a number of the
recommendations, many await further action and most require resource
commitments. In addition, some of the recommended actions are not expected
to be implemented for several years. These shortcomings raise questions
about the likelihood the recommendations will be put in place.

Background
----------

International parental child abduction is a U.S. federal and state
criminal offense. The International Parental Kidnapping Crime Act of 1993
and similar state laws seek to prosecute abductors and bring them to
justice. All 50 states, the District of Columbia, and territories have
such laws. The Justice Department, including the Federal Bureau of
Investigation, is the lead federal agency for pursuing criminal charges
against abducting parents. The State Department assumes the U.S. lead role
in civil cases.

The State and Justice Departments seek to coordinate their efforts with
their state and local counterparts. Other organizations, such as the
National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, play instrumental
roles in seeking the return of wrongfully abducted or retained children.

The 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child
Abduction/Footnote4/ is an international agreement among 54 nations,
including the United States, that established civil procedures to follow
when locating, accessing, or returning abducted children to resolve
custody issues./Footnote5/ About half of all abductions from the United
States are to other Hague Convention countries. The balance of abductions
is to countries that are not parties to the Hague Convention. For
abductions to non-Hague countries, locating, accessing, or returning
abducted children is a case- and country-specific matter. Under the Hague
Convention, each country identifies a lead government agency (called a
"central authority") to serve as a central point of contact. The State
Department is the central authority for the United States.

Over the past several years, left-behind parents and others have
criticized the federal government's performance in responding to parental
child abductions. In 1994, the Justice Department established a Missing
and Exploited Children's Task Force to assist state and local authorities
with difficult missing and exploited children cases. 

In December 1997, this task force established the Subcommittee on
International Child Abduction and in November 1998, the Attorney General
created the Policy Group on International Parental Kidnapping/Footnote6/
which produced the April 1999 publication entitled A Report to the
Attorney General on International Parental Kidnapping.

This report highlighted the problems with the current federal response and
made recommendations to correct those problems. In this regard, the report
underscored weaknesses with the current case-tracking process and
coordination problems between the State and Justice Departments as well as
the need to improve services to left-behind parents and aggressively
pursue diplomatic efforts to resolve Hague Convention implementation
problems. The report suggested ways in which the State and Justice
Departments should address these problems. It also offered additional
recommendations to develop an enhanced role for the National Center for
Missing and Exploited Children to work more closely with U.S. left-behind
parents, increase education and training resources for federal and local
law enforcement, and tighten mechanisms, such as passport revocation
practices, to prevent departure. The report also distinguished between the
civil remedies to recover children and the criminal mechanisms to bring
abductors to justice.

Problems With the Federal Response
----------------------------------

Key problems cited by the State and Justice Departments, left-behind
parents, and others that create obstacles to locating and returning
internationally abducted children include gaps in federal services to
left-behind parents and weaknesses within the existing case-tracking
process. In addition, State Department officials and left-behind parents
have cited certain countries that are signatories to the Hague Convention
but that are not complying with its provisions. Left-behind parents have
also cited the Justice Department's limited use of the 1993 International
Parental Kidnapping Crime Act as a problem.

Gaps in Services to 
Left-Behind Parents
-------------------

Certain gaps exist in federal services to left-behind parents that make it
difficult for these parents to recover their abducted children. Left-
behind parents and others have criticized the U.S. central authority--the
State Department--for not providing a central point of contact for
information and guidance on how to address abduction cases. They also
cited as problems limited U.S. government-provided financial assistance
and counseling services, and infrequent and inconsistent communication
with officials managing their cases.

One problem is that there is no central point of contact within the
federal government that can provide complete information on international
parental child abduction cases, making it difficult for left-behind
parents to monitor the status of their cases. For example, the State
Department's Office of Children's Issues can apprise left-behind parents
on the status of their civil cases, but the office usually does not have
information on the status of the criminal aspects of these cases. Parents
would have to obtain this information from the Justice Department.

Inadequate financial and other assistance to parents has been identified
as a problem. Currently, neither the State nor the Justice Departments
provide financial assistance to left-behind parents that would be
sufficient to offset their costs, unlike some other Hague countries.
Securing the return of abducted children can entail significant cost. For
example, left-behind parents usually will have to travel abroad, retain a
lawyer, and pay other fees. One U.S. left-behind parent told us he spent
over $200,000 pursuing his abducted child, while the abducting parent's
costs were paid-in-full by her government. Some countries--Germany and
Austria, for example--require that Hague applications and supporting
documents be filed in their native language. In these cases, left-behind
parents may be required to pay for translation services. Often these costs
are beyond parents' means. Moreover, left-behind parents and siblings may
need counseling services, but the federal government has not traditionally
provided financial assistance for counseling. Using Justice Department
funds, a program managed by the National Center for Missing and Exploited
Children has provided limited financial assistance to some left-behind
parents so they can travel overseas to pick up children returned to their
custody.

Another gap in services involves the lack of staff at State's Office of
Children's Issues to keep parents informed about the status of their case.
For most of fiscal year 1999, the average caseload was about 150 cases per
caseworker. An ideal caseload, according to social work experts, is 
35 cases per caseworker. Office of Children's Issues staff told us that
contact with left-behind parents has suffered as a result of the heavy
caseload. Although the Office of Children's Issues does not have a
specific requirement regarding the frequency of contact with left-behind
parents, the general guidance has been that parents should be contacted
once a month on Hague Convention cases and every 4 to 6 months on non-
Hague cases.

Coordination Problems in Managing Cases
---------------------------------------

As I mentioned earlier, although several agencies may be involved in
international kidnapping cases, the federal government does not have a
comprehensive system to track agency activities or assure that all
appropriate measures are being taken by all appropriate agencies. The
State Department and the National Center for Missing and Exploited
Children have separate databases that track international parental
kidnapping cases. A Justice Department database tracks criminal cases
brought against child abducting parents. These databases are not
integrated and may use different criteria to categorize cases, actions,
and results. This situation has led to coordination problems and
duplication of effort. For example, a caseworker in the State Department
Office of Children's Issues made inquiries on an open Hague case only to
find that the Federal Bureau of Investigation had located the child and
closed its case a month earlier. This caseworker also told us that his
office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation often make duplicate
inquiries on the same case.

The State Department's case-tracking system also does not generate
meaningful statistics that can be used for program management. For
example, the system cannot accurately describe the incidence of reported
abduction cases because it does not include information on all
international parental abductions and because double counting occurs in
some cases. Also, although the system can provide data on the number of
closed cases, it cannot report on all the reasons why cases are closed and
whether the child was returned. Because of these shortcomings, the Office
of Children's Issues lacks data to determine where best to allocate
resources or identify the elements of successfully resolved cases.

Noncompliance With the Hague Convention
---------------------------------------

The State Department's 1998 report/Footnote7/ to Congress on the issue of
compliance with Hague rules identified Austria, Honduras, Mauritius,
Mexico, and Sweden as the most serious violators of the convention. In
some cases, these countries have disregarded their obligations to take
appropriate measures to discover the whereabouts of abducted children. In
others, their judicial systems have interpreted the convention in a manner
that the State Department believes undermines the Convention's basic goal
of ensuring the prompt return of children to their habitual residence. 
Left-behind parents have criticized State for not pursuing diplomatic
initiatives more vigorously with these and other countries to enforce
implementation of the Hague rules and to resolve other problems. The State
Department acknowledges that more systematic and aggressive diplomatic
efforts are needed to address problems with the Hague Convention.

Limited Prosecutions Under the International Parental Kidnapping Crime Act
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

You asked us to comment on the Justice Department's implementation of the
International Parental Kidnapping Crime Act, which makes parental
abduction a federal felony. Since 1993, the Justice Department has
indicted 62 parents under the International Parental Kidnapping Crime Act.
As a result of these indictments, 13 parents have been convicted of felony
parental kidnapping.

Decisions to bring cases under the act rest with each of the independent
Offices of the U. S. Attorneys. We spoke with some Assistant U.S.
Attorneys who have prosecuted abducting parents and they cited a number of
reasons to explain their limited use of the act. For example, some
prosecutors indicated that as a general policy they will not indict
abducting parents until civil remedies are exhausted under the Hague
Convention. They cited congressional intent that the procedures under the
Hague 

Convention should be the option of first choice for a parent who seeks the
return of a child./Footnote8/ Other prosecutors noted that prosecuting
abducting parents can compromise efforts under the Hague civil process to
return a child since some Hague countries have asserted their
unwillingness to continue pursuing civil remedies if criminal charges are
pending against its citizens./Footnote9/

In addition, the Assistant U.S. Attorneys believe they can provide
significant federal assistance to left-behind parents by supporting 
state-level prosecutors in their pursuit of international parental
abductors rather than by bringing cases under the act. State-level
prosecutors, who have already investigated and indicted a parental
abductor, can request from an Assistant U.S. Attorney a federal arrest
warrant when the abductor unlawfully crosses state or international
borders to avoid prosecution under state law./Footnote10/ By doing so,
state-level prosecutors can bring a battery of federal resources to bear
against the abducting parent. For example, the Federal Bureau of
Investigation can assist state-level law enforcement officers with
locating the abductor, and federal law enforcement officials can request
the State Department to deny or revoke an abductor's passport to prevent
departure. Also, federal warrants can be used to invoke international
police (INTERPOL) notices to seek abductors wanted for
extradition./Footnote11/

Even with these mechanisms, however, Justice Department officials noted
that many countries, including several Hague signatories, do not consider
a parental abduction to be a criminal offense as the United States does,
and thus do not consider international parental abduction to be an
extraditable offense. Moreover, even if a foreign country deems parental
abduction a criminal offense, it often will not be willing to extradite
its own nationals. This is particularly true with respect to the civil law
nations of Latin America and Europe.

Lastly, Justice Department officials noted that the act seeks to prosecute
abducting parents, an action that does not guarantee the return of the
child./Footnote12/ In this regard, however, they were unable to provide us
with information on how many abducted children have been returned because
the Justice Department does not maintain such statistics.

State and Justice Departments Plan to Improve Federal Response
--------------------------------------------------------------

The State and Justice Departments have developed several recommendations
they believe will correct the problems we have discussed. Their April
1999/Footnote13/ report about deficiencies in the federal response to
parental child abductions contains recommendations that seek to expand
services and resources to left-behind parents, establish a comprehensive
case-tracking system, and implement diplomatic initiatives to address
Hague implementation issues. Also, both departments have taken an
additional step and developed an implementation plan in August, which,
according to the Justice Department, serves as a guide to identify the
resources needed to implement proposed changes. We reviewed both the
recommendations and the implementation plan and found that State and
Justice have made some progress toward implementing their recommendations.
However, many of the recommendations are not clearly defined and lack
specific resource requirements.

Some Progress Made in Specific Areas
------------------------------------

The State and Justice Departments have made some progress toward improving
services to left-behind parents, designing an integrated 
case-tracking system and pursuing diplomatic initiatives. Specifically,
the State Department has made progress toward improving caseworker
services to left-behind parents. In this regard, since October 1998, the
Office of Children's Issue has hired 10 additional staff to reduce
caseload. In addition, State has recently hired a coordinator who will
work out of the offices of the National Center for Missing and Exploited
Children, which State expects will facilitate an enhanced relationship
between the State 

Department and the National Center for Missing and Exploited
Children./Footnote14/ Also, the Justice Department has made limited
funding available to nonprofit organizations to provide mentoring services
to left-behind parents.

Both the State and Justice Departments have acknowledged the need for a
comprehensive, integrated case-tracking system, which they are attempting
to develop. The Office of Children's Issues is taking the lead to develop
this system, and a preliminary needs assessment is underway. The actual
system design should begin early next calendar year.

Finally, State has pursued some diplomatic initiatives with a few
countries that have had Hague implementation problems. However, most
planned diplomatic initiatives have not yet begun.

Implementation of Recommendations Will Be Difficult Without Clear Resource
Commitments
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Although State and Justice have made some progress, without clear resource
commitments it will be difficult to implement the remaining
recommendations in a timely manner. As we mentioned earlier, according to
State and Justice, they use their implementation plan to identify the
resources needed to carry out proposed changes. However, neither
department has been able to provide us with information about such
resources. For example, according to State Department officials, all of
its planned diplomatic initiatives are contingent on additional funding,
but they have not provided us with information about the source and level
of funding necessary for these activities. Moreover, State and Justice
have not provided us funding information for nearly all the remaining
planned changes in the federal response, including the resources needed to
fully implement the case-tracking system.

In addition to lacking resource commitments, many of the remaining
recommendations we reviewed fail to identify the specific actions the
State and Justice Departments will take to achieve their objectives. As we
mentioned earlier, the State Department acknowledges that more systematic
and aggressive diplomatic efforts are needed to address Hague Convention
noncompliance. Most of the recommendations in this regard seek to review,
study, and explore Hague implementation issues but fail to identify how
these activities will actually help solve Hague implementation problems.

In summary, both the State and Justice Departments have taken positive
steps to clarify and describe how they will respond to identified
international parental abduction problems. However, without resource
commitments, it is uncertain whether they will be able to take additional
steps to correct most problems. Both State and Justice Departments agree
that they need to establish resource commitments. We expect that as
recommendations are implemented and accomplished, a clearer perspective on
their efficacy will emerge.

Mr. Chairman, while we have not yet completed our work our preliminary
observations are that the State and Justice Departments should continue to
define the specific actions and resources necessary to implement their
recommendations. Doing so will enable both departments to more effectively
manage their corrective actions.

Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee, that concludes my prepared
statement. I will be happy to answer any questions you may have.

Contact and Acknowledgments

For future contacts regarding this testimony, please contact Jess T. Ford
at (202) 512-4268. Individuals making key contributions to this testimony
included Boris L. Kachura, Michael C. Zola, La Verne Tharpes, and Mark
Dowling.

(711455)

--------------------------------------
/Footnote1/-^International parental child abduction is defined as the
  removal of a child from the United States or retention of a child
  outside the United States with intent to obstruct the lawful exercise of
  parental rights (18 U.S.C. 1204).
/Footnote2/-^ The actual number of cases may be greater because some
  parents never report the abductions to the State Department but instead
  pursue a remedy directly with foreign authorities.
/Footnote3/-^Public Law 103-173 codified at 18 U.S.C. 1204.
/Footnote4/-^29 ILM 1501 (1980).
/Footnote5/-^The Hague Convention seeks to ensure that child custody
  disputes will be resolved in the country of the child's habitual
  residence.
/Footnote6/-^The subcommittee includes representatives of the State and
  Justice Departments as well as representatives from the Treasury
  Department (U.S. Customs Service), the National Center for Missing and
  Exploited Children, the Kern County, California, District Attorney's
  Office and the American Prosecutors Research Institute. The policy group
  is comprised of high-level representatives of the Justice and State
  Departments and seeks to expedite reforms in the federal response.
/Footnote7/-^Report on Compliance with the Hague Convention on the Civil
  Aspects of International Child Abduction (Washington, D.C.: Department
  of State, 1999).
/Footnote8/-^Public Law 103-173, ****ITCCentury Book:xa4****2(b).
/Footnote9/-^According to the American Bar Association in its 1998 report
  Issues in Resolving Cases of International Child Abduction, four central
  government authorities reported that some judges in their country will
  not order a child's return if criminal charges are outstanding.
/Footnote10/-^The 1980 Parental Kidnapping Prevention Act, Public Law 96-
  611, expressly declares that the Fugitive Felon Act, 18 U.S.C. 1073,
  applies to state felony cases involving parental kidnapping.
/Footnote11/-^State arrest warrants can also invoke INTERPOL notices.
/Footnote12/-^In at least one case, a federal judge conditioned an
  abductor's sentence on the return of the child. The judge's sentence was
  upheld on appeal. See U.S. v. Amer, 110 F.3d 873 (2d Cir. 1997).
/Footnote13/-^A Report to the Attorney General on International Parental
  Kidnapping prepared by the Subcommittee on International Child Abduction
  of the Federal Agency Task Force on Missing and Exploited Children and
  the Policy Group on International Parental Kidnapping (April 1999).
/Footnote14/-^State and Justice have signed a cooperative agreement with
  the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that is designed
  to enhance the center's role in abduction cases.

*** End of document. ***