Foreign Affairs: Status of U.S. Parental Child Abductions to Germany, Sweden, and Austria

Abstract

The State Department estimates that about 1,000 children are abducted by one of their parents from the United States annually. Pursuant to the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of international Child Abduction, left-behind parents can apply for the return of, or access to (that is, visitation),their children located in countries that are parties to the Convention with the foreign country's government through the Department of State. The Convention governs how these applications are handled and adjudicated in the foreign country where the child is located. A May 2000 congressional resolution cited several countries, including Germany, Sweden, and Austria, for not meeting their commitments under this Convention. In response to your concerns involving German, Swedish, and Austrian handling of U.S. cases, the General Accounting Office (GAO) obtained information from State Department files to determine the status and outcome of cases initiated by parents left behind in the United States from January 1995 through May 15, 2000. GAO gave a briefing on the results of its work on August 29, 2000. This report summarizes the contents of the briefing.

Open PDF

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Sep 01, 2000
Accession Number
ADA383566

Entities

Organizations

  • United States Government Accountability Office

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Accountability
  • Accounting
  • Agreements
  • Congress
  • Department Of State
  • Electronic Mail
  • Foreign Relations
  • Governments
  • House Of Representatives
  • International Relations
  • Judiciary
  • Law
  • National Security
  • Public Administration
  • Security
  • Supreme Court
  • United States

Readers

  • Child and Adolescent Substance Abuse Science in Autism Spectrum Disorders.
  • European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP).
  • Government and Public Administration Law.