State Dept. Defends Goldman Act Report after Smith, Author of Law, 'Left Behind' Parents Criticize Flaws

Press Release

The leading State Department official in the Obama Administration tasked with resolving international parental child abductions conceded today that the administration's first report issued on international child abductions had mistakes and would be corrected in the weeks ahead, and that the Department would work to produce better annual reports in the future.

Ambassador Susan Jacobs made the comments Thursday at a standing-room-only hearing chaired by Congressman Chris Smith (NJ-04), author of the "Sean and David Goldman Child Abduction Prevention and Return Act," the new law designed to give the State Department tools to help bring abducted American children back home. Other witnesses included parents whose children have been kidnapped overseas, television actress Kelly Rutherford, and one of the nation's top international family law attorneys, Patricia Apy.

With nearly 1,000 American children abducted each year from the U.S. and held in foreign countries, the hearing focused on the U.S. State Department's stumbling implementation of the Goldman Act, a law authored by Smith that gives the State Department leverage in the return of abducted American children.

Smith said accurate reporting is critical to family court judges across the country and parents considering their child's travel to a foreign country where abduction or access are a risk.

"The stakes are high: misleading or incomplete information could mean the loss of another American child to abduction," Smith said. "The Goldman Act requires an end to the status quo--but the first step toward change is telling the truth in the report. Which is why I am so concerned that Japan was not listed as showing a persistent failure to work with the US on abduction cases. Japan has never issued and enforced a return order for a single one of the hundreds of American children abducted there. It holds the world record on the abduction of American children never returned. And yet it got a pass on more than 50 open cases, most of which have been pending for 5 years or more. Japan needs to be put on the non-compliant list."

Smith said he was very concerned that the first annual report contains "major gaps" and even misleading information, especially when it comes to countries like India which has numerous intractable abduction cases.

"The report indicates that India, which has consistently been in the top five destinations for abducted American children, had 19 new cases in 2014, 22 resolved cases, and no unresolved cases," Smith said. "However, we know from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, or NCMEC, that India has 53 open abduction cases--and that 51 have been pending for more than 1 year." Click here to read Chairman Smith's opening statement.

At the hearing officially entitled "The Goldman Act to Return Abducted American Children: Ensuring Accurate Numbers and Administration Action," left behind parents openly criticized the State Department, and particularly how it has dealt with abduction cases in Japan, India and other countries.

In a major concession, Jacobs, Special Advisor for Children's Issues at the Bureau of Consular Affairs with the State Department, announced that the three-month-old report would be corrected and amended before the end of the month. Jacobs also said she knows that the 2015 Annual Report falls short of expectations, and has received related feedback from Smith's subcommittee and parents about areas that need improvement.

Jacobs also acknowledged that the report citing zero unresolved cases in Japan and India was not accurate and that the report would be amended. She committed to providing better information and more effective reports in the future. She also said that while frustrating for some, the report was helping to focus countries' attention on child abductions cases and access cases--including Japan.

"U.S. diplomatic missions overseas have delivered démarches to the governments of every country listed as demonstrating patterns of non-compliance, including non-Convention countries such as India, which has the highest number of cases of any country that is not party to the Convention," Jacobs said. Demarches are a non-public protest or petition through diplomatic channels.

The combination of Smith's law and the report "really brought home to the Japanese" that they need to get moving," Jacobs said.

Jacobs was defensive regarding criticism of the Obama Administration's record on Japan from left behind parents, most of whom have been waiting years to see their children returned. During a recent trip to Japan, she said she met the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to discuss abductions.

Jacobs said that in talks with Japanese officials she "emphasized that the United States expects meaningful action and resolution of both pre-Convention and Convention cases." She said she engages the Japanese government to press for returns, access, and resolutions, "as appropriate." Click here to read Jacob's testimony.

Rutherford testified about her own international legal nightmare.

"Nobody in this country seems willing or able to do anything to help bring my American children home, even though this is the country that sent them away," she said, referring to a U.S. court order sending her two young children to Europe to live with her ex-husband, even though the family had never lived there. "I can only see this as a legal kidnapping by a California judge forcing my children to live abroad for so long that the other countries seize control over their lives. I just ask each of you here today how it is possible that two American citizens have been ordered by their own government to live in exile in a foreign country?"

International abduction attorney Patricia Apy, who represented David Goldman in his five-year child abduction fight said there is "no viable explanation" how Japan is kept from being objectively identified as demonstrating patterns of non-compliance.

"Japan is singled out in the report, but only as a diplomatic success story, with contradictory information within different sections of the report, regarding Japan's status," Apy said. "While seemingly acknowledging that Japan has continued their historic patterns of recalcitrance in the return of abducted children or organization of rights of access, Japan is not identified as exhibiting patterns of non-compliance

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