Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 114 Part 6.djvu/123

 CONCURRENT RESOLUTIONS-JUNE 23, 2000 114 STAT. 3179 day after Members are notified to reassemble pursuant to section 2 of this concurrent resolution, whichever occurs first. SEC. 2. The Speaker of the House and the Majority Leader of the Senate, acting jointly after consultation with the Minority Leader of the House and the Minority Leader of the Senate, shall notify the Members of the House and the Senate, respectively, to reassemble whenever, in their opinion, the public interest shall warrant it. Agreed to May 25, 2000. INTERNATIONAL CHILD ABDUCTION—HAUGE June 23, 2000 CONVENTION COMPLIANCE tn. con. ites. 293] Whereas the Department of State reports that at any given time there are 1,000 open cases of American children either abducted from the United States or wrongfully retained in a foreign country; Whereas many more cases of international child abductions are not reported to the Department of State; Whereas the situation has worsened since 1993, when Congress estimated the number of American children abducted from the United States and wrongfully retained in foreign countries to be more than 10,000; Whereas Congress has recognized the gravity of international child abduction in enacting the International Parental Kidnapping Crime Act of 1993 (18 U.S.C. 1204), the Parental Kidnapping Prevention Act (28 U.S.C. 1738a), and substantial reform and reporting requirements for the Department of State in the fiscal years 1998-1999 and 2000-2001 Foreign Relations Authorization Acts; Whereas the United States became a contracting party in 1988 to the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction (in this concurrent resolution referred to as the "Hague Convention") and adopted effective implementing legislation in the International Child Abduction Remedies Act (42 U.S.C. 11601 etseq.); Whereas the Hague Convention establishes mutual rights and duties between and among its contracting states to expedite the return of children to the state of their habitual residence, as well as to ensure that rights of custody and of access under the laws of one contracting state are effectively respected in other contracting states, without consideration of the merits of any underlying child custody dispute; Whereas article 13 of the Hague Convention provides a narrow exception to the requirement for prompt return of children, which exception releases the requested state from its obligation to return a child to the country of the child's habitual residence if it is established that there is a "grave risk" that the return would expose the child to "physical or psychological harm or otherwise place the child in an intolerable situation" or "if the child objects to being returned and has attained an age and degree of maturity at which it is appropriate to take account of the child's views";

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