Complicity in Child Abduction

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.

The State Department claims Germany has halved the time it takes for parental-abduction cases to move through its court system and has trained dozens of judges in the international law. It also claims some children have been returned as a result. It's unclear whether these few returns were voluntary or court-ordered because the Hague compliance report fails to differentiate.

Sweden is no better. In fact the Belgian Minister of Justice has declared directly that Sweden violates the Child Abduction Convention. Its own Hague figures confirm this. Sweden has more cases with the United States than with the rest of the world combined, and Congress condemned Sweden, along with Germany, for its treatment of Hague cases. So, Johnson wonders, how could the State Department upgrade Sweden's Hague status?

DeWine tells Insight: "The international abduction of children is a foreign-policy imperative. We must not allow Germany, nor any Hague Convention signatory nation, to ignore their convention obligations and blindly turn against the parents who have suffered indescribable heartache at the loss of their children."

Parents don't expect answers from the State Department but wonder why Congress, having been stiffed, does not demand accountability on every single case. The State Department tells Insight there were about 11,000 cases dating back to the 1970s. In a 1999 report to Congress, State claimed there were about 10,000 abducted American children abroad at the time it passed the 1993 International Parental Kidnapping Crimes Act. Even these numbers make little sense when the State Department admits to 500 to 1,000 cases annually. Ernie Allen, chief executive officer of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, estimates more than 15,000 cases per year.

Although Allen's numbers include Hague and non-Hague cases, it is clear the number of unresolved cases the State Department provided Congress in its last three reports covered up the truth, Johnson says.

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