Parental Kidnapping
Interamerican University of Puerto Rico
Law School
To: Prof. Andrés Córdova Phelps Student's Dean
From: Hernan Marrero L00012480 Date: December 13, 2005 Re: Parental Kidnapping Since the 1970s, the State Department estimates that it has been contacted for help in about 11,000 international child abductions where a parent was involved. The State Department estimates an average of 400 to 500 new international cases per year. A recent study by the American Bar Association Center on Children and the Law shows that in 60 percent of international abduction cases, the children are never returned even though their whereabouts are known. To resolve custody disputes and jurisdictional involving different countries caused by the international abduction of children, the international law adopted in October 25, 1980 the Hague Convention on Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. The Convention provides common rules and procedures to determine child custody.
The preamble of the Convention states that its primary purpose is "Desiring to protect children internationally from harmful effects of their wrongful removal or retention and to establish procedures to ensure their prompt return to the State of their habitual residence as well as to secure protection for rights of access." So it can be said that the primary purposes of the Convention are to deter persons from committing international abductions, and to provide a prompt remedy for the return of abducted children. Before the adoption of the Convention, the only practical solution for some parents was to self help by obtaining the child by force. The primary object of the Convention as stated in the Article 1, is "(a) to secure the prompt return of the children wrongfully removed or retained in any Contracting State; and (b) to ensure that rights of custody and of access under the law of one Contracting State are effectively respected in the other Contracting
Law School
To: Prof. Andrés Córdova Phelps Student's Dean
From: Hernan Marrero L00012480 Date: December 13, 2005 Re: Parental Kidnapping Since the 1970s, the State Department estimates that it has been contacted for help in about 11,000 international child abductions where a parent was involved. The State Department estimates an average of 400 to 500 new international cases per year. A recent study by the American Bar Association Center on Children and the Law shows that in 60 percent of international abduction cases, the children are never returned even though their whereabouts are known. To resolve custody disputes and jurisdictional involving different countries caused by the international abduction of children, the international law adopted in October 25, 1980 the Hague Convention on Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. The Convention provides common rules and procedures to determine child custody.
The preamble of the Convention states that its primary purpose is "Desiring to protect children internationally from harmful effects of their wrongful removal or retention and to establish procedures to ensure their prompt return to the State of their habitual residence as well as to secure protection for rights of access." So it can be said that the primary purposes of the Convention are to deter persons from committing international abductions, and to provide a prompt remedy for the return of abducted children. Before the adoption of the Convention, the only practical solution for some parents was to self help by obtaining the child by force. The primary object of the Convention as stated in the Article 1, is "(a) to secure the prompt return of the children wrongfully removed or retained in any Contracting State; and (b) to ensure that rights of custody and of access under the law of one Contracting State are effectively respected in the other Contracting