What is the responsibility of each country that signed the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction?
A. Each signatory to the treaty agreed to set up a Central Authority to organize each case and act as a clearinghouse for international child abduction issues. For example, the United States Department of Justice was designated the U.S. Central Authority and, in turn, delegated much of that authority to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). Some countries signed on to the treaty but have not put much funding nor effort into implementation. Each government has a great deal of power over cases under the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction once transferred within their borders. The referring country, of course, has no real authority at all and therefore one must rely on the individual government where the child has been taken to use that power. Often, a diligent attorney working on a child abduction case is the key to having a child returned. Q.
