Despite issuing new data relating to the number of American children kidnapped and held in Japan every day, the Obama administration is refusing to properly use the new law enacted to help bring the children back home.
First they didn't get the numbers right. But, after unrelenting pressure from Congress--including two nearly back-to-back hearings and passionate urging by left behind parents--the State Department last week quietly posted an amendment to their 2015 international child abduction report--a report required annually (going forward) under the new Sean and David Goldman International Child Abduction Prevention and Return Act of 2014 (P.L. 113-150).
Rep. Chris Smith, (NJ-04), the author of the Goldman Act said the original report was weeks late and in desperate need of the rewrite. At the June 11th and July 16th hearings that Smith chaired, he and other members of his human rights panel urged the Administration to fix the report and use the data properly to help abducted children and left behind parents.
"The crucial, supplemental information absent from the original report and finally posted by the State Department reveals the absolute crisis of abductions faced by American parents and the critical need for the Administration to implement the Goldman Act in its entirety," Smith said. "Correcting the data is only a first step--albeit a critical one. The Administration must now accept their own numbers and back them up with meaningful action that will help bring home abducted children."
In the case of Japan, Smith said this means properly listing that country with the other "non-compliant" countries, i.e. those with the worst rates of returning home American children.
"The new statistics acknowledge the suffering of 67 American families--originally omitted from the report--who have been fighting Japan for years for the return of their children. It also shows that not one of the new cases under the Hague Convention in Japan was resolved," said Smith.
"With more accurate data reported, it is incumbent upon the Administration to make the other critical adjustments such as naming Japan along with the 22 other "non-compliant' countries that are now subject to a strong response by the State Department."
"While India has a "resolved rate" of 24 percent and the State Department lists it as "non-compliant', Japan has a resolved rate of merely 12 percent--and it was given a pass," said Smith. "The Goldman Act requires the State Department to properly count cases, identify problem countries subject to possible sanctions and then respond accordingly on behalf of abducted American children and their left behind parents."
After five years of legislative wrangling, the Goldman Act gives the State Department the tools it needs to move beyond its historic policy of "quiet diplomacy" to one of taking action on behalf of American families suffering from international child abduction. Countries that have low abduction and access resolution statistics--or that simply fail to adequately work with the U.S. to resolve cases--may now finally face actions by the State Department ranging from official protests through diplomatic channels, to extradition and even the suspension of development, security, or other foreign assistance.
Jeffery Morehouse of the NGO BAC Home and father of a son abducted to Japan in 2010, observed "There are families fighting to keep their children from being taken to Japan and facing real danger because of this report," referring to the State Department's refusal to list Japan as "non-compliant" and thereby warn American families and judges deciding custody and travel of children that Japan does not send abducted children home. "What is the State Department doing for heartbroken parents whose children have already been kidnapped to Japan beyond "raising our cases'? Are they simply going to continue to acquiesce to Japan and let victimized American parents and children twist in the wind?" Morehouse said.
The State Department is legally required by the Goldman Act to report to Congress on actions taken in response to "non-compliant" countries by August 15. Mr. Smith, Chairman of the Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations, will hold his third in this series of hearings on implementation of the Goldman Act in September.