Complicity in Child Abduction

0 Comments | Insight on the News, July 23, 2001 | by Timothy W. Maier

In fact, State's response to the Hague questionnaire, obtained by Insight, indicates the department does not want to publicize child-abduction statistics. Asked if it would support making statistics accessible, State responded that it favored developing well-defined guidelines for tracking cases that focus on actual returns or access. But it does not "support posting statistics on the Hague Conference Website or in some other publicly accessible manner."

Tom Johnson is a senior attorney for the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration at the State Department. His 13-year-old daughter, Amanda, remains trapped in Sweden. He says, "The whole approach of the State Department is that they can't embarrass other governments because it will make matters worse. It's the quiet diplomacy argument: Who cares about complaining Americans; the job of State is to please foreign governments."

Johnson asked to attend the Hague conference, but he was rebuffed by Mary Ryan, assistant secretary of state for consular affairs in the Office of Children's Issues. Ryan should have let him go, he argues, because she didn't even bother to attend the entire conference -- a sign to many parents that State still isn't taking these cases very seriously.

International Child Abduction

State Department report on compliance
with the Hague Convention

Country                 1999                2000

Austria             Noncomplaint     Noncomplaint
Bahamas             Not available    Not available
Colombia            Not available    Country of Concern
Germany             Not available    Not fully compliant
Honduras            Noncomplaint     Noncomplaint
Mauritius           Noncomplaint     Noncomplaint
Mexico              Noncomplaint     Not fully compliant
Panama              Not available    Noncomplaint
Poland              Not available    Country of Concern
Spain               Not available    Not available
Sweden              Noncomplaint     Not fully compliant
Switzerland         Not available    Country of Concern
Unresolved cases         58                  30

Country                 2001

Austria             Noncomplaint
Bahamas             Country of Concern
Colombia            Country of Concern
Germany             Country of Concern
Honduras            Noncomplaint
Mauritius           Noncomplaint
Mexico              Not fully compliant
Panama              Non-compliant
Poland              Country of Concern
Spain               Country of Concern
Sweden              Country of Concern
Switzerland         Country of Concern
Unresolved cases         29

Bad-Country of concern
Worse-Not fully compliant
Worst-Noncompliant

Johnson says the 2001 Hague report amounts to "fraudulent reporting." It categorizes countries that don't honor Hague requests into three rankings: "noncompliant," "not fully compliant" or "of concern." To parents' astonishment, the latest report upgrades Germany and Sweden to "of concern."

Never mind that Congress cited Germany as a serious abuser. In 1999, Germany was not even listed as violating the Hague Convention. In 2000, it was listed as partially compliant, but now it has been upgraded to "of concern." In fact, records obtained by Insight during a three-year investigation show very few American children have been returned from Germany. In 1999, State Department records showed that of 243 such cases fried in Germany, there were only 40 court-ordered returns (16.5 percent). Germany's own report to the European Parliament on the Hague cases is even worse, putting returns at a paltry 9 percent during 1999. At least six American and French parents are holding a hunger strike in Berlin in July to protest the German government's handling of these cases.