`[Congressional Bills 105th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1266 Placed on Calendar Senate (PCS)]






                                                       Calendar No. 196
105th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 1266

                          [Report No. 105-101]

 To interpret the term ``kidnaping'' in extradition treaties to which 
                     the United States is a party.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                            October 7, 1997

   Mr. Helms, from the Committee on Foreign Relations, reported the 
    following original bill; which was read twice and placed on the 
                                calendar

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To interpret the term ``kidnaping'' in extradition treaties to which 
                     the United States is a party.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

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 was not 
        considered a criminal offense in the United States, either at 
        the State or Federal level;
            (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--removing a child from the United States with intent 
        to obstruct the lawful exercise of parental rights--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 
``kidnaping'' and ``kidnapping'' to include international parental 
kidnapping.

SEC. 4. INTERNATIONAL PARENTAL KIDNAPPING DEFINED.

    As used in this Act, the term ``international parental kidnapping'' 
means a criminal offense that is the same or similar to the criminal 
offense set forth in section 1204 of title 18, United States Code.




                                                       Calendar No. 196

105th CONGRESS

  1st Session

                                S. 1266

                          [Report No. 105-101]

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL

 To interpret the term ``kidnaping'' in extradition treaties to which 
                     the United States is a party.

_______________________________________________________________________

                            October 7, 1997

                 Read twice and placed on the calendar`