International Parental Child Abduction

The wrongful removal or retention of a child across an international border by one parent, in violation of the custody rights of the other parent or of a court, generally treated as legally and criminologically distinct from ordinary kidnapping because the taking parent has some pre-existing lawful relationship to the child rather than being a stranger, and because the child's recovery typically proceeds through a dedicated civil legal framework rather than an ordinary criminal kidnapping case. The 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction establishes, among more than one hundred signatory countries, a process for the prompt return of a wrongfully removed or retained child to their country of habitual residence, generally without relitigating the underlying custody dispute in the country to which the child was taken. A number of countries additionally criminalize international parental child abduction under domestic law, and the United States Department of State's Office of Children's Issues assists American parents pursuing the return of an abducted child under the Convention.