[House Hearing, 106 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
H. CON. RES. 293, URGING COMPLIANCE WITH THE HAGUE CONVENTION ON THE
CIVIL ASPECTS OF INTERNATIONAL CHILD ABDUCTION
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MARKUP
BEFORE THE
COMMITTEE ON
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED SIXTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
__________
MAY 19, 2000
__________
Serial No. 106-159
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on International Relations
Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.house.gov/
international--relations
__________
U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
67-828 WASHINGTON : 2000
______
COMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
BENJAMIN A. GILMAN, New York, Chairman
WILLIAM F. GOODLING, Pennsylvania SAM GEJDENSON, Connecticut
JAMES A. LEACH, Iowa TOM LANTOS, California
HENRY J. HYDE, Illinois HOWARD L. BERMAN, California
DOUG BEREUTER, Nebraska GARY L. ACKERMAN, New York
CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey ENI F.H. FALEOMAVAEGA, American
DAN BURTON, Indiana Samoa
ELTON GALLEGLY, California MATTHEW G. MARTINEZ, California
ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida DONALD M. PAYNE, New Jersey
CASS BALLENGER, North Carolina ROBERT MENENDEZ, New Jersey
DANA ROHRABACHER, California SHERROD BROWN, Ohio
DONALD A. MANZULLO, Illinois CYNTHIA A. McKINNEY, Georgia
EDWARD R. ROYCE, California ALCEE L. HASTINGS, Florida
PETER T. KING, New York PAT DANNER, Missouri
STEVE CHABOT, Ohio EARL F. HILLIARD, Alabama
MARSHALL ``MARK'' SANFORD, South BRAD SHERMAN, California
Carolina ROBERT WEXLER, Florida
MATT SALMON, Arizona STEVEN R. ROTHMAN, New Jersey
AMO HOUGHTON, New York JIM DAVIS, Florida
TOM CAMPBELL, California EARL POMEROY, North Dakota
JOHN M. McHUGH, New York WILLIAM D. DELAHUNT, Massachusetts
KEVIN BRADY, Texas GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York
RICHARD BURR, North Carolina BARBARA LEE, California
PAUL E. GILLMOR, Ohio JOSEPH CROWLEY, New York
GEORGE RADANOVICH, California JOSEPH M. HOEFFEL, Pennsylvania
JOHN COOKSEY, Louisiana
THOMAS G. TANCREDO, Colorado
Richard J. Garon, Chief of Staff
Kathleen Bertelsen Moazed, Democratic Chief of Staff
Hillel Weinberg, Senior Professional Staff Member and Counsel
Jill N. Quinn, Staff Associate
C O N T E N T S
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Page
Markup on H. Con. Res. 293, Urging Compliance with the Hague
Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child
Abduction...................................................... 1
APPENDIX
Statement of the Honorable Benjamin A. Gilman, a Representative
in Congress from the State of New York and Chairman, Committee
on International Relations..................................... 10
Text of H. Con. Res. 293......................................... 12
H. CON. RES. 293, URGING COMPLIANCE WITH THE HAGUE CONVENTION ON THE
CIVIL ASPECTS OF INTERNATIONAL CHILD ABDUCTION
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FRIDAY, MAY 19, 2000
House of Representatives,
Committee on International Relations,
Washington, DC.
The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:30 a.m. in
room 2172, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Benjamin A.
Gilman (Chairman of the Committee) presiding.
Chairman Gilman. The Committee will come to order. Members
please take their seats.
The Committee on International Relation meets in open
session this morning, pursuant to notice, to mark up House
Concurrent Resolution 293.
The Chair lays the resolution before the Committee.
The Clerk will report the title of the resolution.
The Clerk. Urging Compliance with the Hague Convention on
the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction.
Chairman Gilman. Without objection, the preamble and
operative language of the resolution will be read, in that
order of amendment.
The Clerk will read.
The Clerk. Whereas the Department of State reports that at
any given time there----
Chairman Gilman. Without objection, the resolution is
considered as having been read and is open for amendment at any
point.
[H. Con. Res. 293, ``Urging Compliance With the Hague
Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child
Abduction'' appears in the appendix.]
Chairman Gilman. This resolution is in the original
jurisdiction of the full Committee.
I now recognize the gentleman from Ohio Mr. Chabot, who
sponsored the resolution.
Mr. Chabot. Mr. Chairman, thank you for bringing this
important legislation before the Committee today. You have been
a true champion on the issue of international child abduction,
and I can assure you that the left-behind parents of those many
American children appreciate your hard work on their behalf.
I also want to thank John Herzberg of the Committee staff
for his help. His expertise on this issue and his commitment to
helping these families has been a real benefit to us as we have
been moving forward with this bill.
I also want to thank Kevin Fitzpatrick from my office, who
has been absolutely like a pit bulldog on this issue. He is
very, very committed. He has been handling this in an
extraordinarily professional manner, and I want to thank him
personally for everything that he has done on this important
issue.
I also want to thank Mr. Gejdenson, the Ranking Member of
this Committee, who has been very supportive, and it is very
much appreciated.
I also want to thank and pay tribute to the principal
cosponsor of this bipartisan resolution, my friend from Texas,
Congressman Nick Lampson. As founder and Chairman of the
Congressional Missing and Exploited Children's Caucus, he has
worked tirelessly on behalf of abducted children and their
families, and he has been a very effective partner in this
legislative effort.
The State Department reports that there are at any given
time more than 1,000 open cases of American children either
abducted or wrongfully retained in a foreign country. Thousands
more are thought to go unreported.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
estimates that of the 165,000 parental kidnapping cases each
year, approximately 10 percent involve a parent who takes the
child abroad.
This resolution focuses on those children. House Concurrent
Resolution 293 is very straightforward. We are urging all
contracting parties to the Hague Convention on the Civil
Aspects of International Child Abduction to comply fully with
both the letter and the spirit of their international legal
obligations under the Convention to ensure their compliance by
enacting effective implementing legislation and educating their
judicial and law enforcement authorities, and to honor their
commitments and return wrongfully abducted children to their
place of habitual residence, and ensure parental access rights
by removing obstacles to the exercise of those rights.
Last October our Committee held a very important hearing on
this issue. We heard compelling testimony from a number of
witnesses. We listened to some very painful stories told by the
left-behind parents of American children, and we learned of the
incredible frustration felt by those parents as they were
repeatedly rebuffed in their attempts to be reunited with their
children, frustrated not only with the foreign governments who
stood in their way, but with their own government as well.
In the months since that hearing, I have had a chance to
meet and talk with more of those parents, and many of them
share a common story. Oftentimes their stolen children reside
in a country that is a signatory to the Hague Convention, yet
those countries routinely reject the responsibility that comes
with participation in that agreement. At the same time, they
see an impotent U.S. Government failing to respond to their
pleas for help.
Mr. Chairman, we will accomplish several things when we
adopt this resolution. We will send a message to those
offending countries, many of whom we consider allies, that the
United States expects them to live up to their commitments
under The Hague Convention. We will send a message to the State
Department that international child abduction is a priority
issue in the U.S. Congress, and that we expect our diplomats to
make it a priority issue in their dialogues with offending
nations. We will send a message to the thousands of left-behind
parents of stolen children that their government has not
forgotten them.
I thank my colleagues for their attention and their
support, and I urge support of the resolution.
Mr. Chairman, at this time I would like to request that our
colleague from Texas, Mr. Lampson, the principal cosponsor of
the resolution, be permitted to make a statement in support of
the measure. I want to once again thank Mr. Lampson for his
great leadership on this issue, as well as Congressman Doug
Ose, who also has been a strong leader and strong advocate for
those parents who have had their children ripped away to other
countries. I would like to thank both of those Members, and at
this point I yield to Mr. Lampson.
Chairman Gilman. Without objection, I recognize the
gentleman from Texas Mr. Lampson, one of the original
cosponsors of the measure.
Mr. Lampson. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I want to thank you and Ranking Member Gejdenson for
allowing me to come and spend just a couple of minutes talking
about this. I probably have reached a point where I have almost
made a nuisance of myself along the way with this issue, and I
thank you very, very much for your understanding and your
support of everything that we have done, and certainly for
Congressman Chabot for the work that he has done in joining me
in cosponsoring this very important piece of legislation.
Steve, I thank you a great deal for your interest, your
concern, and your persistence.
As Chairman and founder of the Congressional Missing and
Exploited Children's Caucus, I really am pleased that the
Committee has recognized the importance of an issue that
Congressman Chabot and I have been pushing, international
parental child abduction. The bill that the Committee is
marking up today calls on signatories of the Hague Convention
on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction to abide
by the provisions of the Hague Convention.
I came before you 3 months ago with a number of parents to
announce to Congress and to the American people that it was
time for America and our foreign counterparts to sit up and
take notice of the 10,000 American children who have been
abducted overseas. That time has come. We are pointing fingers
today at those countries that have not lived up to their side
of the deal. I know that the United States is not perfect, that
we still have much educating to do of the judges who deal with
this issue, but the return rate by the United States to other
Hague countries is upwards of 89 percent. We know that American
children are returned at a rate far less than what the United
States returns, about 24 percent.
I received a telephone call as I left the office, just a
matter of 5 minutes or so before I left the office, and it was
from Paul Marinkovich. Paul Marinkovich is a father whose child
has been on the run with the child's mother to four different
countries for the last 3 years. This morning he received word
from Scotland courts, because they have enacted The Hague
Convention there, that he won his case, and his child will be
coming to the United States. That is the success that we have
sought on any and all of these cases, and they are happening
now because of Congress's willingness to stand up and be heard
on this issue.
These parents' children have been abducted to Hague
countries all over the world. This issue is one that is
nonpartisan and one that none of us can afford to ignore. I am
truly pleased to have introduced this resolution with my
friend, Congressman Steve Chabot. Our resolution urges all
contracting parties to the Hague Convention, particularly
European civil law countries that consistently violate the
Hague Convention, such as Austria, Germany and Sweden, to
comply fully with both the letter and the spirit of their
international legal obligations under the Convention, in
addition to urging all contracting parties to ensure their
compliance with the Convention by enacting effective
implementing legislation and educating their judicial and law
enforcement authorities.
As I stated in my press conference about 3 months ago, we
need to raise awareness. Parents from across the country have
been contacting their Members of Congress, and we must continue
to put pressure on other countries that are Hague signatories
that are not abiding by The Hague treaty. This resolution does
just that.
As I said in March, I would like to issue a challenge to
each of you to help carry this message forward and help us
bring our children home.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman Gilman. Thank you, Mr. Lampson.
I recognize, without objection, a nonmember of our
Committee who is also one of the original sponsors of this
bill, Mr. Ose from California.
Mr. Ose. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am appreciative of your
efforts to bring this quickly forward. I want to commend my
good friend Mr. Chabot and my good friend Mr. Lampson for not
only their eloquence this morning, but their dedication to this
issue.
It is interesting, before I go home every night, I take 30
minutes and I call my children, and I am reminded every time I
call about why I came to Congress.
So thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman Gilman. Thank you, Mr. Ose.
Mr. Gejdenson.
Mr. Gejdenson. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I commend the
original cosponsor of the legislation to say that no one is
immune from this kind of crisis. We know that Lady Meyer, wife
of the British Ambassador, has this problem where her children
have been taken off to Germany and she is not able to see them.
One of my constituents traveled with her husband back to Egypt,
he divorced her, took the children, faked a car accident and
claimed the children were dead. When she found out they were
alive, she tried to get them. That didn't succeed. He then
found out later that she was pregnant with yet another child
and threatened to kidnap that child. She is now in hiding. So
we need to have an international response here.
I applaud the efforts of all of those who have been
involved. We have 132 cosponsors. We have heard from the key
Members that really initiated this effort. We have 15
cosponsors on the Committee in support of moving the issue to
move rapidly.
Chairman Gilman. Thank you, Mr. Gejdenson.
Ms. Ros-Lehtinen.
Mr. Hastings.
Mr. Hastings. Mr. Chairman, thank you very much. I, too,
associate myself with the remarks of Mr. Chabot and Mr. Lampson
and Mr. Gejdenson in commending them for bringing this matter
forward, and you, Mr. Chairman, for giving it the highest
priority.
As rightly we should, we are dealing with returning
American children who are caught up in the vicissitudes of
parental disputes and governmental disputes, and rightly, we
should make this our highest priority.
I have the misfortune of having this as the fourth forum in
which I have had to live with this kind of situation. I have
been a lawyer for people who have had this problem. I was a
circuit court judge in a juvenile decision ruling with
reference to matters of this kind, again in Federal court as a
judge, and now as a Congressperson. Hopefully, this will bring
us to a better resolution than I saw in the other three fori
that I had opportunities to deal with this matter.
I do wish to assert to my colleagues that have brought this
matter forward, I would hope that after we are successful, that
you would also dramatize and bring to the attention of the
world the need that we have in addition to what we are doing
here by falling in line with the Hague Convention to ratify the
Convention on the Rights of Children, and that is all children,
not just American children. We have in this country a
significant number of unaccompanied minors who are not being
handled properly by our country. I would think, in light of the
fact that 164 countries have ratified the treaty on the
Convention on the Child passed by the United Nations in 1989,
our country and Somalia being the only two that have not
ratified that treaty, that it would be helpful that if the same
sponsors, and I am one of the cosponsors with you all, would
bring your attention to that matter.
I filed a resolution calling on us to expedite that
particular matter and to deal with the subject of the
unaccompanied minors who are here. I think it would help us in
dealing with countries like Sweden and Germany and Austria, who
seemingly are hell-bent on not following The Hague Convention.
Thank you again for your leadership on this, Mr. Speaker,
and Mr. Chabot, and Mr. Lampson especially, and Mr. Ose for the
fine work that they have done.
Chairman Gilman. Thank you, Mr. Hastings.
Mr. Sherman.
Mr. Sherman. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just want to
commend the authors of this bill. I have worked closely with
Nick Lampson on these issues. I have one case in my district
involving Costa Rica, and I can see how tangled these matters
become, and I commend the Chairman for moving this markup
quickly.
Chairman Gilman. Thank you very much, Mr. Sherman.
Any other Members seeking recognition?
This resolution, H. Con. Res. 293, urges compliance with
the Hague Convention on Civil Aspects of International Child
Abduction. It is unfortunate that we are in the position of
having to criticize by name several nations with whom we have
otherwise friendly relations, Germany, Austria, Sweden,
Honduras and Mexico, but it is clear from the circumstances
that it is necessary to do so.
I want to commend the gentleman from Ohio Mr. Chabot, who,
on behalf of some 132 cosponsors, introduced this measure. I
would also like to thank Mr. Lampson from Texas as the Chairman
of the Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children, and Mr. Ose
from the State of California, who have devoted much of their
time to raising our level of awareness of the growing problem
of international child abduction.
We are taking action on this measure on behalf of the
parents of our abducted and wrongfully retained children. These
left-behind parents have put their faith and trust in an
international agreement, The Hague Convention, which is clear
and explicit on the obligation of signatory governments to
return an abducted or wrongfully retained child to his or her
country of habitual residence. Nevertheless, we have found that
in a number of nations, for a variety of reasons, this does not
occur, and the resultant frustration, heartbreak and outrage
has led us to act on the measure before us today.
I should also add that we need to have our State Department
do more to promote compliance with The Hague Convention. The
return of an abducted or illegally retained child should be on
the top of the Secretary's meetings with any official of a
country involved in such cases.
This is not a problem that should be handled as a routine
exchange of diplomatic notes or phone calls by junior U.S.
officials to their foreign counterparts. We need to see some
concern and some concrete actions by the highest levels of our
government to redress what is, evidently, a growing
international problem.
It is our hope that by adopting this resolution, and
sending it to the floor for speedy action, we will send a
strong signal that this is an issue that we care deeply about.
We need to get the attention of the Governments of Germany,
Sweden, Austria, Mexico, and Honduras that they cannot expect
The Hague Convention to be a one-way street. Accordingly, I
urge our Committee to fully agree to the request that H. Con.
Res. 293 be scheduled on the suspension calendar.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Gilman appears in the
appendix.]
Chairman Gilman. Are there any other Members seeking
recognition?
If not, the gentleman from Ohio Mr. Chabot is recognized to
offer a motion.
Mr. Chabot. Mr. Chairman, I move that the Chairman be
requested to seek consideration of the pending resolution on
the suspension calendar.
Chairman Gilman. Thank you.
The question is now on the motion of the gentleman from
Ohio. As many as are in favor of the motion, signify by saying
aye.
As many are opposed, say no.
The ayes have it. The motion is agreed to.
Further proceedings on this motion are postponed.
The Committee stands adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 10:55 a.m., the Committee was adjourned.]
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A P P E N D I X
May 19, 2000
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