The House on May 23 approved, 416-0, a resolution (H. Con. Res. 293) urging other countries to comply with a treaty on international abduction. The measure was considered under suspension of the rules, an expedited procedure that bars amendments and requires a two-thirds vote for passage.
The nonbinding resolution was approved on May 19 by the House International Relations Committee (see The Source, 5/19/00, p. 10). The Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction was ratified by the U.S. in 1988 and includes 53 other countries.
H. Con. Res. 293 describes Article 13 of the treaty, which provides “a narrow exception to the requirement for prompt return of children…if it is established there is a ‘grave risk’ that the return would expose the child to ‘physical or psychological harm or otherwise place the child in an intolerable situation,’ or ‘if the child objects to being returned and has attained an age and degree of maturity at which it is appropriate to take account of the child’s views.’” However, according to the resolution, some countries participating in the treaty, “for example Germany, routinely invokes Article 13 as a justification for nonreturn, rather than resorting to it in a small number of wholly exceptional cases.”
The resolution also describes Article 21, which provides for the arrangement of parental visitation in resolving international abduction cases. It states that “denial of parental visitation” is a consistent problem with treaty participants including Austria, Germany, Honduras, Mexico, and Sweden.
Sponsored by Rep. Steve Chabot (R-OH), the resolution calls on all countries participating in the treaty “to comply fully with both the letter and spirit of their international legal obligations under the Convention.” H. Con. Res. 293 also emphasizes “the need for immediate action when a parent of an abducted child seeks their assistance.”
