U.S. Department of State  
96/10/10 Statement: Help for Abducted Children, Parents  
Office of the Spokesman  
  
  
  
Press Statement by Nicholas Burns/Spokesman  
October 10, 1996  
  
  
  
               Abducted Children, Parents to be Helped by   
                     Expanded Justice-State Initiative  
  
  
  
U.S. children abducted across international borders by a U.S. or foreign   
parent will receive new protections because of a joint initiative   
recently renewed and improved by the State and Justice Departments.    
Under the cooperative agreement initiated in 1995, the Justice and State   
Departments will continue an alliance with the private, non-profit   
National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) to track and   
recover such children under the Hague Convention treaty on international   
parental child abduction.  
  
The agreement also contains a major new feature.  As part of its mission   
to provide funding for crucial victim services, the Office of Victims of   
Crime in the Department of Justice's Office of Justice Programs has   
agreed to absorb travel-related reunification costs for American parents   
who can prove that dire economic hardship prevents them from recovering   
their children from overseas.  
  
The Departments of State and Justice and the NCMEC will build on an   
innovative partnership intended to resolve international parental child   
abduction cases.  Often such abductions involve international marriages   
that are dissolving when one parent returns to his or her native country   
and abducts the child in violation of the other parent's custody rights.    
Cross-cultural custodial disputes can be extremely complicated.  This   
agreement provides legal, consular and investigative services to parents   
who have been separated from their children.  
  
The State Department estimates that each year approximately 1,000   
American children are abducted to or illegally retained in foreign   
countries by the non-custodial parent.  Of these cases, about 600 are   
abductions to the 43 countries that participate in The Hague Convention   
on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction.  The Hague   
Convention, an international treaty ratified by the United States in   
1988, addresses the problem of international parental child abductions.    
The treaty provides for the prompt return of wrongfully removed or   
retained children to the country of the "habitual residence," but   
governs only cases when both countries are party to the treaty.  
  
This partnership initiative is funded by a combination of discretionary   
government funds and voluntary contributions.  The extended agreement   
provides an array of services to the parent in the recovery of the   
abducted child.  These include:  
  
-- legal technical assistance to help explain Hague Convention   
procedures;  
  
-- law enforcement liaison and international contacts through Interpol   
and other foreign law enforcement agencies and missing children non-  
profit organizations;  
  
-- the assistance of volunteers who will help translate foreign language   
correspondence and conversations;  
  
-- access to age progression technology for long-term cases;  
  
-- poster dissemination in target countries to assist in the locate   
process; and  
  
-- parent and administrative support to help the family through this   
difficult process.