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Background Papers

German-American Cooperation in Implementation of the Hague Convention on International Child Abduction

Germany is a signatory to the 1980 Hague Convention of the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. The basic principle upheld in the convention is that children under the age of 16 who are taken from one country to another in custody disputes be brought back as quickly as possible to the country where they habitually reside. Custody rights, according to the convention, should then be decided by the courts of the county in which the child had lived until his/her abduction. Each signatory state has a central authority responsible for implementation of the convention; in Germany, this responsibility lies with the Public Prosecutor General of the German Federal Court of Justice.

Several hundred cases are reported to German authorities each year of children either being abducted from Germany or retained in Germany against the will of one of their parents. These cases typically arise from the failure of marriages between Germans and foreigners, and they often involve children being held in North African or Middle Eastern countries. There are also cases of children being brought to Germany, including several highly publicized cases involving German and American parents.

At a meeting in Berlin on June 1, 2000, Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and President Bill Clinton addressed the issue of cross-border custody disputes. Since then, the Federal Ministry of Justice and the U.S. Department of Justice have established a working group to examine individual cases and to consider whether institutional changes are needed to improve resolution of custody disputes within the framework of the Hague Convention.

Implementation of the Hague Convention in Germany

Most international custody disputes are resolved outside of court. Between 30 and 40 percent of the cases that come to the attention of the Public Prosecutor General end up being resolved by German family courts. In some instances, proceedings are not initiated with central authorities under the Hague Convention and settlement is sought by other means. Sometimes cases are settled by direct cooperation between the central authorities; Germany's Public Prosecutor General and the U.S. State Department, the agency responsible for implementation of the Hague Convention in the United States, have a history of successful cooperation in resolving custody disputes involving German and American citizens.

According to the Annual Report of the Public Prosecutor General, 24 requests were filed in Germany during 1999 for the return of children taken from the United States and 25 requests were filed in the United States for the return of children taken from Germany. In six of the 24 cases handled in Germany, the children were returned to the U.S. on the basis of either a court order or a voluntary agreement. In another six cases, the request for return was withdrawn or the cases was settled out of court. In one case, a German court ordered that the child remain in Germany. Eleven cases are still pending. Of the 25 cases handled in the United States, eleven ended with the court-ordered or voluntary return of children to Germany. In five cases, the requests were withdrawn or settlements were reached out of court. Nine cases are pending.