International Problems in Child Custody Disputes
All too often, one parent in a divorce refuses to accept a court’s child custody decision and takes matters into his or her own hands. With marriages between citizens of different countries becoming more common in the 21st century, the problem of international child abduction can present unique problems.
The most common scenario for international child abduction occurs when an American citizen marries a citizen of a foreign country and they have children together, but their marriage ends in divorce. When one of the parents takes the children to a foreign country in violation of a court order, an international child abduction has occurred.
The United States and more than 80 others nations have signed a treaty to prevent international child abduction, the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. International law requires countries that signed the Hague Convention to recognize and enforce the child custody orders of other countries that have signed the treaty.
However, many Asian countries have not signed the Hague Convention, including some of America’s closest allies in the region. According to the U.S. State Department, Japan and India account for more than 300 cases of international child abduction, involving more than 400 children.
Once a child has been abducted to a country that has not signed the Hague Convention, a parent who has been left behind has very few remedies. In fact, one American parent recently spent 18 days in a Japanese prison after a failed attempt to bring his children back home.
There has been progress in many Asian countries. South Korea and Singapore have recently announced they will sign the Hague Convention. However, Japan and India have shown little indication that they do likewise. In our next post, we will discuss the phenomenon of international child abduction in more detail and the efforts that are underway to reunite American parents with their children.
Source: The Washington Post, “Japan, India pressed to curb child abductions,” David Crary, 12/7/2010
