Treaty helps bridge the divide on international child abductions.

• Author: King, Irene
• Position: LAW JOURNAL 2010

Last summer, the international parental child-kidnapping case involving American David Goldman and his Brazilian wife, Bruna, made headlines around the world. With a rise in dual-nationality marriages and the ease of travel, international parental child-abduction cases have become much more common. Although the high profile Goldman case caught the attention of the U.S. government and the mainstream media, the multilateral treaty at the heart of the dispute also has an impact here in Charlotte.

The Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction is a treaty between multiple signatory countries and serves to simplify the process of reunifying a parent with a child who has been illegally removed from his or her home country by the other parent. The treaty's general objects are twofold: to secure the prompt return of children wrongfully removed to, or retained in any signatory country outside of their home country; and to ensure that rights of custody and of access under the law of one country are effectively respected in another country. The United States signed the Hague Convention in 1981 and currently recognizes 68 contracting signatory countries. Additionally, each signatory country has a Central Authority, which is a government agency responsible for assisting contracting countries in processing and hopefully resolving child abduction cases.

Although the Hague Convention is designed to ensure that its signatory countries cooperate with each other to facilitate the prompt return of an abducted child, the stark reality of a case brought within the treaty's optimistic precepts is that left-behind parents are powerless to seek any relief unless and until they can actually locate their child. Often, the collective efforts of local and foreign authorities and their resources, along with timing and luck, are the keys to finding an abducted child. In cases involving a child abducted to the United States, once a child is located, expeditious federal or state court action is critical to ensuring the abducted child's return to his or her home country. Notably, under the Hague Convention, courts do not have any authority to hear or determine an underlying custody dispute. The "best interests of the child" standard that is familiar to litigants in family-law disputes is not implicated in a Hague Convention case.

A judge handling a case arising under the Hague Convention can only determine if the child can or should be returned...