International Child Abduction - What to Do
A parent absconding with a child is a frightening thing when it occurs in your own country. However, when a parent abducts a child taking him/her to a foreign country, or wrongfully retains the child in a foreign country, the physical distance is only one of the complexities.
In 1980, the US and other nations implemented the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. One of the main purposes is to protect children from the harmful effects of their wrongful removal or retention in a foreign country. In 1988 Congress adopted provisions to implement the protections of the Hague Convention under the International Child Abduction Remedies Act (ICARA).
If you suspect that your child has been wrongfully removed from your custody and taken to a foreign country, the first things to do after calling law enforcement, are determine whether the country is a member of the Hague Convention, and work with your attorney to report the abduction or wrongful retention to the State Department’s Office of Children’s Issues. You and your attorney would submit an application for assistance under the Hague Convention. Form DS-3013.
Another preliminary step involves filing a petition for relief in a state and/or federal court with jurisdiction over the child custody action. The legal issue will not be what is in the child’s best interest, but which jurisdiction should hear the matter. For example, which jurisdiction should hear the custody matter – the courts from where the child was taken, of the courts where the child is currently located? There are at least three elements that the petitioning parent must demonstrate: (1) the child was abducted from his/her country of habitual residence; (2) the petitioning parent had custody of the child at the time the child was wrongly removed and/or retained; and, (3) the petitioning parent was exercising his/her custodial rights at the time the child was removed. See 42 U.S.C. § 11603 (e) (2) (A) (West 1998).
