The International Parental Kidnapping Crime Act of 1993: The United States' Attempt to Get Our Children Back--How is it Working
![handle is hein.journals/bjil24 and id is 805 raw text is: THE INTERNATIONAL PARENTAL
KIDNAPPING CRIME ACT OF 1993: THE
UNITED STATES' ATTEMPT TO GET OUR
CHILDREN BACK-HOW IS IT WORKING?
I. INTRODUCTION
Since 1988, the principal mechanism for return of abduc-
ted1 children to the United States has been an international
treaty, the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of Interna-
tional Law.2 This treaty authorizes an aggrieved parent to
apply for the prompt return of the child to the judicial or ad-
ministrative authority of the country in which the child is
wrongfully held.3 It does not impose criminal punishment up-
on the abducting parent.4 While the Hague Convention has
been successful in facilitating the return of many abducted
children, it is rendered useless when a child is taken to a coun-
try which is not a signatory to the Hague Convention. The
Convention cannot be implemented unless both the country in
which the child is held and the country in which the aggrieved
parent resides are signatories;5 thus, abducting parents can
escape the Hague Convention's reach by removing the children
to nonsignatory countries.
Frustrated by the inability to facilitate the return of ab-
ducted children held in nonsignatory countries and in order to
deter the growing number of parental abductions to
nonsignatory countries, Congress passed the International
Parental Kidnapping Crime Act of 19936, making it a Federal
1. Throughout this Note, abduct and kidnap are used interchangeably.
Both refer to the removal or retention of a child by one parent in order to deprive
the other parent of the rights of custody and access to that child. See Internation-
al Parental Kidnapping Crime Act of 1993, 18 U.S.C. § 1204 (1995) [hereinafter
IPKCA or the Act].
2. See Hague Convention of the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduc-
tion, opened for signature Oct. 25, 1980, S. TREATY Doc. No. 99-11, reprinted in
19 I.L.M. 1501 (1980) [hereinafter Hague Convention].
3. See id. art. 7(f), 19 I.L.M. at 1503.
4. See 132 CONG. REC. S15,767-01 (daily ed. Apr. 9, 1986) (statement of Mrs.
Hawkins at the Ratification of the Hague Treaty on Child Abduction).
5. See Hague Convention, supra note 2, art. 35, 19 I.L.M. at 1504.
6. See 18 U.S.C. § 1204 (1995).](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/bjil24&div=33&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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