International Family Law News & Analysis

Japan to sign Hague Convention on Child Abduction

Link: asahi.com : Japan to sign parental-abduction treaty

It's funny how things happen. Just two months ago I was in two separate meetings of some of the Americans who are probably best informed about this issue, and the consensus was that ratifying the Hague Convention was a long-term goal requiring generational change, and the best that could be hoped for was baby steps towards making Japan's domestic court system  respect the same values that the Convention embodies -- that children have a right to their relationship with both parents after divorce, and that you shouldn't gain an advantage in the custody arena by taking a child to another country.

They seem to be going about ratification the same way the U.S. does and the way we prefer other countries to: first, get the domestic institutions in place to make sure we can actually implement the treaty, and only then, formally commit ourselves by ratifying it. It will require huge changes in Japan's court system, but those changes are long overdue -- people in binational families have told me that Japanese custody and visitation law is out of step not only with the rest of the world, but with Japan's own contemporary culture.

ABC story on abduction victims in Japan

Link: ABC News: Little Hope for U.S. Kids Abducted Abroad?

This story, subtitled "American Parents Have Little Hope of Being Reunited With Children Kidnapped to Japan" has a lot of good and surprising information about how backward Japan's legal system is regarding custody, visitation, enforcement and child abduction, and how awful the results are for international families.

Hague Abduction Convention Takes Effect With More Countries

Since last time we reported on ratifications of the Hague Convention, it has become effective between the US and several countries. (With many countries, it becomes effective with the US not when the country "ratifies" the Convention, but when the US accepts their "accession" to it. Here are the latest, from the US State Department's official list:

Sri Lanka
San Marino
Guatemala
Costa Rica
Paraguay
01/01/08

Ukraine
09/01/07

Peru
El Salvador
Dominican Republic
06/01/07

Lithuania
Latvia
Estonia
05/01/07

National Center for Missing & Exploited Children will no longer handle abductions to U.S. under Hague Convention

An announcement dated  February 15, 2008 states:

"As of April 1, 2008, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) will no longer handle any aspect of incoming child abduction cases arising under the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction ("Hague Convention"). As the U.S. Central Authority, the U.S. Department of State has decided to assume all responsibility for managing incoming Hague Convention cases. As of April 1, 2008, please direct all inquiries and requests for assistance that your office receives on incoming cases to the Office of Children's Issues at the U.S. Department of State at 202-736-9090."

The people at NCMEC's international division have been great to work with over the years. They have been handling these cases almost exactly as long as I have. I hope the institutional know-how they've built up carries over.

The rest of NCMEC's statement is in the continuation:

6 nations join Hague Convention on Child Abduction

Dave Jackson of Family Law Reporter recently reported to the ABA's International Family law Committee that:

"The U.S. has recently accepted the accessions of six countries to the Child Abduction
Convention: it will enter into force between the U.S. and Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania
on May 1, and El Salvador, Peru, and the Dominican Republic on June 1.
(The convention is currently in force between the U.S. and the following countries:

HAGUE CONVENTION – WRONGFUL RETENTION – RE-ABDUCTION – SCHEME TO EXPLOIT IMMIGRATION-STATUS PROBLEM.

An American who invited his ex-girl friend to bring his illegitimate daughter back from Poland for a visit, in a situation that began with the mother’s unilateral removal of the child from the U.S., committed a wrongful retention under the Hague Convention. That was the holding in Kijowska v. Haines, ___ F. Supp. 2d ___, 32 FLR 1368 (N.D. Ill. 5/18/06).