Child Abduction Law - Child Kidnapping Law

Child abduction is the abduction or kidnapping of a child (or baby) by an older person. Several distinct forms of child abduction exist: i) A stranger removes a child for criminal purposes: for child sexual abuse, torture, or murder, for extortion, to elicit a ransom from the child's caretakers. ii) A stranger removes a child, usually a baby, with the intent to rear the child as their own. iii) A parent removes or retains a child from the other parent's care (often in the course of or after divorce proceedings).

The States signatory to the present Convention, firmly convinced that the interests of children are of paramount importance in matters relating to their custody, desiring to protect children internationally from the harmful effects of their wrongful removal or retention and to establish procedures to ensure their prompt return to the State of their habitual residence, as well as to secure protection for rights of access.

Reaffirming that children's rights require special protection and call for continuous improvement of the situation of children all over the world, as well as for their development and education in conditions of peace and security.

The Federal Parent Locator Service is available in all custody cases and makes the federal Fugitive Felony Act applicable to interstate child abductions.

The Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, done at The Hague on October 25, 1980, establishes legal rights and procedures for the prompt return of children who have been wrongfully removed or retained, as well as for securing the exercise of visitation rights. Children who are wrongfully removed or retained within the meaning of the Convention are to be promptly returned unless one of the narrow exceptions set forth in the Convention applies.

Whoever removes a child from the United States, or attempts to do so, or retains a child (who has been in the United States) outside the United States with intent to obstruct the lawful exercise of parental rights shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 3 years, or both.

The official record of Hearings before the U.S. House Committee on Government Reform held in 2002.

The ABA Center on Children and the Law, with support from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice, has produced a variety of materials on the subject of parental child abductions.

Requires law enforcement to enter complete descriptions of missing children into NCIC, even if the abductor has not been charged with a crime.

The purpose of the Uniform Child Abduction Prevention Act is to deter both predecree and postdecree domestic and international child abductions by parents, persons acting on behalf of a parent or others. Family abductions may be preventable through the identification of risk factors and the imposition of appropriate preventive measures.

The Hague Convention of 25 October 1980 on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction is a multilateral treaty, which seeks to protect children from the harmful effects of abduction and retention across international boundaries by providing a procedure to bring about their prompt return. The "Child Abduction Section" provides information about the operation of the Convention and the work of the Hague Conference in monitoring its implementation and promoting international co-operation in the area of child abduction.

Here are some tips for attorneys and clients faced with instituting or defending child abduction proceedings under the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, whether in the United States or internationally.

The International Child Abduction News is a newsletter which aims to provide coverage of recent developments in international parental child abduction. The News is produced in the International Family Law Section of the Australian Government Attorney-General's Department. The purpose of the News is to provide general information and not legal advice. Every care is taken in the preparation of the News but readers are advised to check the details of any legislation, cases or other material in it.

The International Child Abduction Database (INCADAT) has been established by the Permanent Bureau of the Hague Conference with the object of making accessible many of the leading decisions taken by national courts in respect of the 1980 Hague Convention. INCADAT is used by judges, Central Authorities, legal practitioners, researchers and others interested in this rapidly developing branch of law. INCADAT has already contributed to the promotion of mutual understanding and good practice, essential elements in the effective operation of the 1980 Convention.

Establishes procedures to implement the Hague Abduction Convention; empowers state and federal courts to hear cases under the Convention and allows the Central Authority access to information in certain America records regarding the location of a child and an abducting parent

Links to central authorities in several countries designated under the 1980 Child Abduction Convention.

The Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction was ratified by Argentina effective June 1, 1991. The Central Authority for the Convention in Argentina is the Dirección General de Asuntos Jurídicos-Dirección de Asistencia Judicial Internacional of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, International Commerce and Worship.

Special issue of the Judges Newsletter.

The Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction (the Hague Convention) provides that a child who is habitually resident in one party country, and has been removed to or retained in another party country in violation of the left-behind parent's custodial rights, should be promptly returned to the country of habitual residence. However, many countries are not parties to the Convention, and even some that are parties enforce the laws only sporadically or in accordance with their own societal customs.

Germany ratified the Hague Convention in 1990 and it entered into effect for Germany later that year. Germany has received extensive international criticism, alleging that German courts were violating their treaty obligations by failing to return children who had been abducted to Germany by German nationals. As a result, Germany enacted procedural reforms in 1999. It is unclear whether these reforms have solved the problem.

Miscellaneous practical issues confront practitioners in disputes where there is a risk of child abduction, or it has already occurred.

The new Regulation contains certain rules on child abduction. It aims at dissuading child abduction within the Community by ensuring that the courts of the Member State of the child's residence before the abduction have the final say to decide where the child shall stay. Moreover, the Regulation complements and reinforces the system created by the The Hague Convention of 25 October 1980 on child abduction by imposing stricter obligations to assure the prompt return of a child in cases of child abduction between Member States.

In the European Union (E.U.), a community composed of multicultural and multiethnic societies, where citizens move freely across borders, the abduction of children is a growing problem. Frequently, abductions occur among E.U. citizens, residents of a particular Member State, who decide either to wrongfully remove or illegally retain a child in the territory of another E.U. Member State.

The Child Abduction and Custody Act (Cap 410) was adopted by Parliament to ratify the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction (1980) and the European Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Decisions Concerning Custody and on Restoration of Custody of Children (1980).

In recent years the European Court of Human Rights has decided quite a significant number of cases and this has certainly helped improve one of the weaknesses of the Convention – the lack of clarity about how return orders are to be enforced. The Court has also added weight to the duties on Central Authorities in Article 7 of the Hague Convention, to the requirement of acting expeditiously in Article 11 and reinforced the significance of the prohibition on deciding custody rights before a return order in Article 16.

Taiwan is not a party to the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. The Hague Convention is by far the most significant international treaty pertaining to the prevention of international child abduction. Indeed, at least 74 countries are party to the Convention, including the United States. The failure of a country to become a party to the Convention sends an extremely strong signal that the country’s legal institutions will not cause an abducted child to be returned to her habitual residence.

The Child Abduction and Custody Ordinance, Cap. 512, was enacted in 1997 to give effect in Hong Kong to the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction signed in October 1980. CPPU is responsible for coordinating all requests from the Central Authorities, i.e. Secretary for Justice, for assistance in handling abduction cases in which a child has been wrongfully retained or removed from custodial care or his/her habitual place of residence.

This article analyses the approach taken by Singapore's criminal and family laws when a child is taken away by one parent without consent of the other parent to another jurisdiction. International efforts to ameliorate the difficulties faced by the left-behind parent in tracing the whereabouts of the child and obtaining his or her return come in the form of the Hague Convention on Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction.

In international parental abduction cases brought to court, Japan claims that parental abduction is not a crime. Courts up to the Supreme Court of Japan routinely refuse to return children to foreign parents with legal custody already ordered by foreign courts. Foreign courts in the country the children were living at the time the Japanese parent abducted them. Thus the Japanese government believes that its own citizens should be allowed to abduct children from other countries with impunity.

Recognising that considerable progress has been achieved during the past decade in fulfilling the rights of the child throughout Europe and Central Asia, in particular with regard to commitments taken at the 1990 World Summit for Children and the obligations of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, universally ratified by countries of Europe and Central Asia.

Presently, there are active negotiations concerning the creation of a ChildAbduction Protocol between Singapore, Australia, Hong Kong, Malaysia and New Zealand. Although signing up to this proposed Protocol would be an important step for Singapore in combating international parental child abduction, it is argued in this article that it should not be regarded as a substitute for Singapore acceding to the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction 1980. The article draws on a study made at the Singapore Family Registry in 2006 and makes a statistical comparison between those cases and those made under the Hague Abduction Convention in 2003.

We dedicate ourselves to recovering internationally abducted children. International child abduction generally concerns a child who has been taken by one parent away from the other. Sometimes it concerns a child who has been taken by grandparents, family members or others, away from the parent(s). That child has been then taken - without authorisation or against existing agreements - to a foreign country. You can also talk of international child abduction if the child is not brought back or returned home on time.

The first phase of our mission deals with parent advocacy. We want to ensure that parents of missing and abducted children receive all the help they deserve and that the rights of parents are protected. Today there are no laws that give a parent control over the search for their own children.

The post of the European Parliament Mediator for International Parental Child Abduction was created in 1987 on the initiative of Lord Plumb, in order to help children from binational marriages that have broken down who have been abducted by one or other parent.

In April 2003, the International Centre Centre for Missing & Exploited Children (ICMEC)and the Permanent Bureau of the Hague Conference on Private International Law entered into a formal partnership to focus on the following strategies to bring about positive changes for the benefit of children and families.

The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children’s (NCMEC) mission is to help prevent child abduction and sexual exploitation; help find missing children; and assist victims of child abduction and sexual exploitation, their families, and the professionals who serve them.

Prevent International Parental Child Abduction (PIPCA) was formed by Teresa Lauderdale, Cathy Brown, and Nina Lauderdale to help protect children from international parental child abduction, and to increase awareness of the tragedy of international abduction and of preventive measures that can be ordered by a Court when a child is at risk of abduction. PIPCA can assist in arranging training, expert testimony, and general advice on this issue.

Articles written by attorneys and experts worldwide discussing legal aspects related to Family Law including: adoption, alimony, child support and custody, child visitation, collaborative law, divorce, domestic violence, elder law, juvenile crime, juvenile law, juvenile probation, paternity, pre-nuptial agreement, separation.