U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE

67–828 CC WASHINGTON : 2000

H. CON. RES. 293, URGING COMPLIANCE WITH

THE HAGUE CONVENTION ON THE CIVIL ASPECTS OF INTERNATIONAL CHILD ABDUCTION

MARKUP

BEFORE THE

COMMITTEE ON

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

ONE HUNDRED SIXTH CONGRESS

SECOND SESSION

MAY 19, 2000

Serial No. 106–159

Printed for the use of the Committee on International Relations

(

Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.house.gov/international—relations

(II)

COMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

BENJAMIN A. GILMAN, New York, Chairman

WILLIAM F. GOODLING, Pennsylvania

JAMES A. LEACH, Iowa

HENRY J. HYDE, Illinois

DOUG BEREUTER, Nebraska

CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey

DAN BURTON, Indiana

ELTON GALLEGLY, California

ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida

CASS BALLENGER, North Carolina

DANA ROHRABACHER, California

DONALD A. MANZULLO, Illinois

EDWARD R. ROYCE, California

PETER T. KING, New York

STEVE CHABOT, Ohio

MARSHALL ‘‘MARK’’ SANFORD, South

Carolina

MATT SALMON, Arizona

AMO HOUGHTON, New York

TOM CAMPBELL, California

JOHN M. MCHUGH, New York

KEVIN BRADY, Texas

RICHARD BURR, North Carolina

PAUL E. GILLMOR, Ohio

GEORGE RADANOVICH, California

JOHN COOKSEY, Louisiana

THOMAS G. TANCREDO, Colorado

SAM GEJDENSON, Connecticut

TOM LANTOS, California

HOWARD L. BERMAN, California

GARY L. ACKERMAN, New York

ENI F.H. FALEOMAVAEGA, American

Samoa

MATTHEW G. MARTINEZ, California

DONALD M. PAYNE, New Jersey

ROBERT MENENDEZ, New Jersey

SHERROD BROWN, Ohio

CYNTHIA A. MCKINNEY, Georgia

ALCEE L. HASTINGS, Florida

PAT DANNER, Missouri

EARL F. HILLIARD, Alabama

BRAD SHERMAN, California

ROBERT WEXLER, Florida

STEVEN R. ROTHMAN, New Jersey

JIM DAVIS, Florida

EARL POMEROY, North Dakota

WILLIAM D. DELAHUNT, Massachusetts

GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York

BARBARA LEE, California

JOSEPH CROWLEY, New York

JOSEPH M. HOEFFEL, Pennsylvania

RICHARD J. GARON, Chief of Staff

KATHLEEN BERTELSEN MOAZED, Democratic Chief of Staff

HILLEL WEINBERG, Senior Professional Staff Member and Counsel

JILL N. QUINN, Staff Associate

(III)

C O N T E N T S

Page

Markup on H. Con. Res. 293, Urging Compliance with the Hague Convention

on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction ..................................... 1

APPENDIX

Statement of the Honorable Benjamin A. Gilman, a Representative in Congress from the State of New York and Chairman, Committee on International Relations ................................................................................................ 10

Text of H. Con. Res. 293 ......................................................................................... 12

(1)

H. CON. RES. 293, URGING COMPLIANCE WITH

THE HAGUE CONVENTION ON THE CIVIL

ASPECTS OF INTERNATIONAL CHILD ABDUCTION

FRIDAY, MAY 19, 2000

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

COMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS,

Washington, DC.

The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:30 a.m. in room

2172, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Benjamin A. Gilman

(Chairman of the Committee) presiding.

Chairman GILMAN. The Committee will come to order. Members

please take their seats.

The Committee on International Relation meets in open session

this morning, pursuant to notice, to mark up House Concurrent

Resolution 293.

The Chair lays the resolution before the Committee.

The Clerk will report the title of the resolution.

The CLERK. Urging Compliance with the Hague Convention on

the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction.

Chairman GILMAN. Without objection, the preamble and operative language of the resolution will be read, in that order of amendment.

The Clerk will read.

The CLERK. Whereas the Department of State reports that at any

given time there——

Chairman GILMAN. Without objection, the resolution is considered as having been read and is open for amendment at any point.

[H. Con. Res. 293, ‘‘Urging Compliance With the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction’’ appears

in the appendix.]

Chairman GILMAN. This resolution is in the original jurisdiction

of the full Committee.

I now recognize the gentleman from Ohio Mr. Chabot, who sponsored the resolution.

Mr. CHABOT. Mr. Chairman, thank you for bringing this important legislation before the Committee today. You have been a true

champion on the issue of international child abduction, and I can

assure you that the left-behind parents of those many American

children appreciate your hard work on their behalf.

I also want to thank John Herzberg of the Committee staff for

his help. His expertise on this issue and his commitment to helping

2

these families has been a real benefit to us as we have been moving forward with this bill.

I also want to thank Kevin Fitzpatrick from my office, who has

been absolutely like a pit bulldog on this issue. He is very, very

committed. He has been handling this in an extraordinarily professional manner, and I want to thank him personally for everything

that he has done on this important issue.

I also want to thank Mr. Gejdenson, the Ranking Member of this

Committee, who has been very supportive, and it is very much appreciated.

I also want to thank and pay tribute to the principal cosponsor

of this bipartisan resolution, my friend from Texas, Congressman

Nick Lampson. As founder and Chairman of the Congressional

Missing and Exploited Children’s Caucus, he has worked tirelessly

on behalf of abducted children and their families, and he has been

a very effective partner in this legislative effort.

The State Department reports that there are at any given time

more than 1,000 open cases of American children either abducted

or wrongfully retained in a foreign country. Thousands more are

thought to go unreported.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children estimates that of the 165,000 parental kidnapping cases each year, approximately 10 percent involve a parent who takes the child

abroad.

This resolution focuses on those children. House Concurrent Resolution 293 is very straightforward. We are urging all contracting

parties to the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction to comply fully with both the letter and

the spirit of their international legal obligations under the Convention to ensure their compliance by enacting effective implementing

legislation and educating their judicial and law enforcement authorities, and to honor their commitments and return wrongfully

abducted children to their place of habitual residence, and ensure

parental access rights by removing obstacles to the exercise of

those rights.

Last October our Committee held a very important hearing on

this issue. We heard compelling testimony from a number of witnesses. We listened to some very painful stories told by the left-behind parents of American children, and we learned of the incredible

frustration felt by those parents as they were repeatedly rebuffed

in their attempts to be reunited with their children, frustrated not

only with the foreign governments who stood in their way, but with

their own government as well.

In the months since that hearing, I have had a chance to meet

and talk with more of those parents, and many of them share a

common story. Oftentimes their stolen children reside in a country

that is a signatory to the Hague Convention, yet those countries

routinely reject the responsibility that comes with participation in

that agreement. At the same time, they see an impotent U.S. Government failing to respond to their pleas for help.

Mr. Chairman, we will accomplish several things when we adopt

this resolution. We will send a message to those offending countries, many of whom we consider allies, that the United States expects them to live up to their commitments under The Hague ConVerDate 11-MAY-2000 14:36 Nov 28, 2000 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 67828.TXT HINTREL1 PsN: HINTREL1
3

vention. We will send a message to the State Department that

international child abduction is a priority issue in the U.S. Congress, and that we expect our diplomats to make it a priority issue

in their dialogues with offending nations. We will send a message

to the thousands of left-behind parents of stolen children that their

government has not forgotten them.

I thank my colleagues for their attention and their support, and

I urge support of the resolution.

Mr. Chairman, at this time I would like to request that our colleague from Texas, Mr. Lampson, the principal cosponsor of the

resolution, be permitted to make a statement in support of the

measure. I want to once again thank Mr. Lampson for his great

leadership on this issue, as well as Congressman Doug Ose, who

also has been a strong leader and strong advocate for those parents

who have had their children ripped away to other countries. I

would like to thank both of those Members, and at this point I

yield to Mr. Lampson.

Chairman GILMAN. Without objection, I recognize the gentleman

from Texas Mr. Lampson, one of the original cosponsors of the

measure.

Mr. LAMPSON. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I want to thank you and Ranking Member Gejdenson for allowing me to come and spend just a couple of minutes talking about

this. I probably have reached a point where I have almost made a

nuisance of myself along the way with this issue, and I thank you

very, very much for your understanding and your support of everything that we have done, and certainly for Congressman Chabot for

the work that he has done in joining me in cosponsoring this very

important piece of legislation. Steve, I thank you a great deal for

your interest, your concern, and your persistence.

As Chairman and founder of the Congressional Missing and Exploited Children’s Caucus, I really am pleased that the Committee

has recognized the importance of an issue that Congressman

Chabot and I have been pushing, international parental child abduction. The bill that the Committee is marking up today calls on

signatories of the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction to abide by the provisions of the Hague

Convention.

I came before you 3 months ago with a number of parents to announce to Congress and to the American people that it was time

for America and our foreign counterparts to sit up and take notice

of the 10,000 American children who have been abducted overseas.

That time has come. We are pointing fingers today at those countries that have not lived up to their side of the deal. I know that

the United States is not perfect, that we still have much educating

to do of the judges who deal with this issue, but the return rate

by the United States to other Hague countries is upwards of 89

percent. We know that American children are returned at a rate

far less than what the United States returns, about 24 percent.

I received a telephone call as I left the office, just a matter of

5 minutes or so before I left the office, and it was from Paul

Marinkovich. Paul Marinkovich is a father whose child has been on

the run with the child’s mother to four different countries for the

last 3 years. This morning he received word from Scotland courts,

4

because they have enacted The Hague Convention there, that he

won his case, and his child will be coming to the United States.

That is the success that we have sought on any and all of these

cases, and they are happening now because of Congress’s willingness to stand up and be heard on this issue.

These parents’ children have been abducted to Hague countries

all over the world. This issue is one that is nonpartisan and one

that none of us can afford to ignore. I am truly pleased to have introduced this resolution with my friend, Congressman Steve

Chabot. Our resolution urges 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 the spirit of their

international legal obligations under the Convention, in addition to

urging all contracting parties to ensure their compliance with the

Convention by enacting effective implementing legislation and educating their judicial and law enforcement authorities.

As I stated in my press conference about 3 months ago, we need

to raise awareness. Parents from across the country have been contacting their Members of Congress, and we must continue to put

pressure on other countries that are Hague signatories that are not

abiding by The Hague treaty. This resolution does just that.

As I said in March, I would like to issue a challenge to each of

you to help carry this message forward and help us bring our children home.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Chairman GILMAN. Thank you, Mr. Lampson.

I recognize, without objection, a nonmember of our Committee

who is also one of the original sponsors of this bill, Mr. Ose from

California.

Mr. OSE. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am appreciative of your

efforts to bring this quickly forward. I want to commend my good

friend Mr. Chabot and my good friend Mr. Lampson for not only

their eloquence this morning, but their dedication to this issue.

It is interesting, before I go home every night, I take 30 minutes

and I call my children, and I am reminded every time I call about

why I came to Congress.

So thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Chairman GILMAN. Thank you, Mr. Ose.

Mr. Gejdenson.

Mr. GEJDENSON. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I commend the original cosponsor of the legislation to say that no one is immune from

this kind of crisis. We know that Lady Meyer, wife of the British

Ambassador, has this problem where her children have been taken

off to Germany and she is not able to see them. One of my constituents traveled with her husband back to Egypt, he divorced her,

took the children, faked a car accident and claimed the children

were dead. When she found out they were alive, she tried to get

them. That didn’t succeed. He then found out later that she was

pregnant with yet another child and threatened to kidnap that

child. She is now in hiding. So we need to have an international

response here.

I applaud the efforts of all of those who have been involved. We

have 132 cosponsors. We have heard from the key Members that

5

really initiated this effort. We have 15 cosponsors on the Committee in support of moving the issue to move rapidly.

Chairman GILMAN. Thank you, Mr. Gejdenson.

Ms. Ros-Lehtinen.

Mr. Hastings.

Mr. HASTINGS. Mr. Chairman, thank you very much. I, too, associate myself with the remarks of Mr. Chabot and Mr. Lampson and

Mr. Gejdenson in commending them for bringing this matter forward, and you, Mr. Chairman, for giving it the highest priority.

As rightly we should, we are dealing with returning American

children who are caught up in the vicissitudes of parental disputes

and governmental disputes, and rightly, we should make this our

highest priority.

I have the misfortune of having this as the fourth forum in which

I have had to live with this kind of situation. I have been a lawyer

for people who have had this problem. I was a circuit court judge

in a juvenile decision ruling with reference to matters of this kind,

again in Federal court as a judge, and now as a Congressperson.

Hopefully, this will bring us to a better resolution than I saw in

the other three fori that I had opportunities to deal with this matter.

I do wish to assert to my colleagues that have brought this matter forward, I would hope that after we are successful, that you

would also dramatize and bring to the attention of the world the

need that we have in addition to what we are doing here by falling

in line with the Hague Convention to ratify the Convention on the

Rights of Children, and that is all children, not just American children. We have in this country a significant number of unaccompanied minors who are not being handled properly by our country.

I would think, in light of the fact that 164 countries have ratified

the treaty on the Convention on the Child passed by the United

Nations in 1989, our country and Somalia being the only two that

have not ratified that treaty, that it would be helpful that if the

same sponsors, and I am one of the cosponsors with you all, would

bring your attention to that matter.

I filed a resolution calling on us to expedite that particular matter and to deal with the subject of the unaccompanied minors who

are here. I think it would help us in dealing with countries like

Sweden and Germany and Austria, who seemingly are hell-bent on

not following The Hague Convention.

Thank you again for your leadership on this, Mr. Speaker, and

Mr. Chabot, and Mr. Lampson especially, and Mr. Ose for the fine

work that they have done.

Chairman GILMAN. Thank you, Mr. Hastings.

Mr. Sherman.

Mr. SHERMAN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just want to commend the authors of this bill. I have worked closely with Nick

Lampson on these issues. I have one case in my district involving

Costa Rica, and I can see how tangled these matters become, and

I commend the Chairman for moving this markup quickly.

Chairman GILMAN. Thank you very much, Mr. Sherman.

Any other Members seeking recognition?

This resolution, H. Con. Res. 293, urges compliance with the

Hague Convention on Civil Aspects of International Child AbducVerDate 11-MAY-2000 14:36 Nov 28, 2000 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 67828.TXT HINTREL1 PsN: HINTREL1
6

tion. It is unfortunate that we are in the position of having to criticize by name several nations with whom we have otherwise friendly relations, Germany, Austria, Sweden, Honduras and Mexico, but

it is clear from the circumstances that it is necessary to do so.

I want to commend the gentleman from Ohio Mr. Chabot, who,

on behalf of some 132 cosponsors, introduced this measure. I would

also like to thank Mr. Lampson from Texas as the Chairman of the

Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children, and Mr. Ose from the

State of California, who have devoted much of their time to raising

our level of awareness of the growing problem of international child

abduction.

We are taking action on this measure on behalf of the parents

of our abducted and wrongfully retained children. These left-behind

parents have put their faith and trust in an international agreement, The Hague Convention, which is clear and explicit on the obligation of signatory governments to return an abducted or wrongfully retained child to his or her country of habitual residence. Nevertheless, we have found that in a number of nations, for a variety

of reasons, this does not occur, and the resultant frustration, heartbreak and outrage has led us to act on the measure before us

today.

I should also add that we need to have our State Department do

more to promote compliance with The Hague Convention. The return of an abducted or illegally retained child should be on the top

of the Secretary’s meetings with any official of a country involved

in such cases.

This is not a problem that should be handled as a routine exchange of diplomatic notes or phone calls by junior U.S. officials to

their foreign counterparts. We need to see some concern and some

concrete actions by the highest levels of our government to redress

what is, evidently, a growing international problem.

It is our hope that by adopting this resolution, and sending it to

the floor for speedy action, we will send a strong signal that this

is an issue that we care deeply about. We need to get the attention

of the Governments of Germany, Sweden, Austria, Mexico, and

Honduras that they cannot expect The Hague Convention to be a

one-way street. Accordingly, I urge our Committee to fully agree to

the request that H. Con. Res. 293 be scheduled on the suspension

calendar.

[The prepared statement of Mr. Gilman appears in the appendix.]

Chairman GILMAN. Are there any other Members seeking recognition?

If not, the gentleman from Ohio Mr. Chabot is recognized to offer

a motion.

Mr. CHABOT. Mr. Chairman, I move that the Chairman be requested to seek consideration of the pending resolution on the suspension calendar.

Chairman GILMAN. Thank you.

The question is now on the motion of the gentleman from Ohio.

As many as are in favor of the motion, signify by saying aye.

As many are opposed, say no.

The ayes have it. The motion is agreed to.

Further proceedings on this motion are postponed.

7

The Committee stands adjourned.

[Whereupon, at 10:55 a.m., the Committee was adjourned.]

(9)

A P P E N D I X

MAY 19, 2000

10

11

12

13

14

15

16