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DEPARTMENT OF STATE

STATEMENT OF KURT M. CAMPBELL

ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR EAST ASIAN AND PACIFIC AFFAIRS

BEFORE THE HOUSE COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS

SUBCOMMITTEE ON AFRICA, GLOBAL HEALTH, AND

HUMAN RIGHTS INTERNATIONAL PARENTAL CHILD ABDUCTION

JULY 28, 2011

—–

Chairman Smith, Ranking Member Payne, and distinguished Members of

the Committee, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today to testify

on international parental child abduction in Japan. I want to particularly thank this

Committee for its leadership on advancing dialogue and focus on this important

issue.

Overall U.S.-Japan relations are strong. The Japanese public has been

enormously grateful to the United States for the speed, size and effectiveness of

our response to the earthquake and tsunami on March 11, including the U.S.

military’s “Operation Tomadachi (friend)” that supported Japanese search, rescue,

and relief operations. The United States has also provided equipment and expert

assistance to assist with the damaged nuclear reactors. American business and

private citizens have donated generously to relief efforts. Thanks in part to

American relief efforts, favorable opinion of the United States is at its highest

point in nearly a decade, climbing to 85 percent positive this spring.

The U.S.-Japan alliance is the cornerstone for American strategic

engagement in the Asia-Pacific. With American forward deployed forces in the

Pacific stationed in Japan, our ability to operate and project power and influence in

Asia is directly linked to our treaty alliance with Japan. The U.S.-Japan alliance

has helped underwrite peace and stability in East Asia for over 50 years and

enabled a context for economic growth and prosperity. As the world’s third largest

economy and a democratic nation our shared interests in promoting peace, security,

and prosperity are central features of our partnership,

While the U.S.-Japan relationship is overwhelmingly positive and an

essential feature of our strategic engagement in the Asia-Pacific region, the

perennial issue of international parental child abduction in Japan remains a point of

concern for the Department of State and the United States Government. Greater

access to Japan – enabled by more frequent and direct air links to Tokyo – has

increased the number of parental abduction cases involving Japan, and with a

direct impact on U.S. nationals as well as Japanese citizens. As recently as 2005,

the Department counted only 11 reported abduction cases involving Japan. Today

the Department tracks 123 active abduction cases involving 173 children with

Japan alone.

To address this issue Secretary Clinton, Assistant Secretary Janice Jacobs,

Ambassador Roos, and Ambassador Susan Jacobs, and I, alongside many other

Department officials have consistently urged Japan to ratify the 1980 Hague

Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction (“the Convention”) in the hopes of establishing a legal mechanism to address the rising

tide of international abduction cases in Japan. Secretary Clinton has repeatedly

raised this issue at the highest levels of the Japanese government. In addition, all of

us routinely hold town hall meetings and correspond with members of the

community of U.S. nationals who have had their children illegally abducted to

Japan. These town hall meetings provide important inputs to our policy

formulation process and allow parents to meet with a broad range of interagency

stakeholders from the U.S. government to help answer questions. Regardless of the

progress made toward Japanese ratification of the Convention, I am personally

committed to holding these meetings.

The Convention seeks to protect children from the harmful effects of their

wrongful removal or retention across international borders, which is a tragedy for

all concerned. The Convention further establishes procedures to ensure the prompt

return of children to the country of their habitual residence when wrongfully

removed or retained and secures protection for rights of access of both parents to

their children. Under the Convention, a country is not bound to order the return of

a child, if it is established that there is a grave risk that his or her return would

expose the child to physical or psychological harm or otherwise place the child in

an intolerable situation. While this exception to return is intended to be applied

narrowly, it is an important measure to protect those children who would be placed

at risk if returned to the habitual residence. To date, 85 countries have acceded to

the Convention.

Japan is the only G-7 nation that has not implemented the Convention.

Currently the left-behind parents of children abducted to or from Japan have little

hope of having their children returned and encounter great difficulties in obtaining

access to their children and exercising their parental rights and responsibilities.

We are pleased, however, that our efforts to encourage Japan to join the

Convention appear to be bearing fruit. On May 20 of this year, Prime Minister

Naoto Kan’s Cabinet publicly stated the GOJ’s intention to ratify the Convention.

Soon thereafter, Prime Minister Kan himself relayed this message to President

Obama when the two heads of state met at the G-8 Summit held in Deauville,

France.

Japanese officials have indicated that after ratification Japan’s implementing

legislation will include reservations to the Convention permitting a Japanese court

to reject a return application. Among the reasons under which a court could reject

a return petition are reportedly: 1) The taking parent has been abused (or is likely

to be further abused) by the left-behind parent if she/he returns with the child; 2) the taking parent faces criminal prosecution in the other country; or 3) The taking parent cannot meet the financial cost of living in the other country. These

exceptions are based primarily on Article 13(b) of the Convention. They appear to

be responsive to objections raised by Japanese opponents of the Convention,

particularly that the Convention does not protect Japanese mothers. Our view is

that the Convention and procedures it calls for adequately protect the legitimate

rights and needs of Japanese mothers as well as children and other parents.

Japanese officials have assured us that Japan will implement the Convention

properly and does not seek to circumvent the basic premise of the Convention that

custody of children should be determined in the court of the child’s habitual

residence. We look to Japan to take the necessary steps to ensure its full

compliance and commitment to the Convention.

We will continue to look for ways to ensure the Convention, once ratified by

Japan, becomes an effective tool to address these heart-wrenching cases. While

the Convention will only apply to cases that arise after ratification, we continue at

all levels to encourage the Government of Japan to implement measures that would

resolve existing child-abduction cases and allow parents currently separated from

their children to reestablish contact with them and ensure visitation rights. In this

regard, we call on the Japanese government to take steps to enhance opportunities

for visitation and access. We are prepared to use all necessary political and legal

means necessary to facilitate contact and access for parents and abducted children.

As part of these continuing efforts we have sent Hague experts to meet with

and brief Japanese officials on the inner workings of the Hague process and are

planning to host Japanese officials within the Bureau of Consular Affairs to give

them the chance to see how our own central authority handles cases of

international child abduction. We are constantly looking for additional

opportunities to engage with our Japanese counterparts on this issue, make

progress on successful implementation of the Hague Convention, and gain tangible

results in existing cases.

We value the continued support of you and your colleagues in what we at

the Department of State consider to be one of the most important issues facing the

U.S. – Japan relationship. At the end of the day we are all here to assist United

States citizens and, while much work remains to be done, a great deal has been

accomplished. Together, over the course of the past two years, we have moved

from a place where there was little if any dialogue on the issue of international

parental child abduction in Japan to one where ratification of the Hague

Convention is part of the public discourse in Japan and on the agenda for

ratification. We also have a public commitment by the Government of Japan to put in place the legislation needed implement the Hague Convention. These are

considerable accomplishments, ones we should all be proud of, but at the same

time recognizing the remaining challenges of resolving existing cases. This issue

remains a top priority for Department of State and I look forward to continuing to

work with you and your colleagues in the days ahead to try to reach a satisfactory

outcome.

Thank you for the opportunity to testify before you today on this important

issue. I welcome any questions you may have.

—–

Asst. Sec. of State Kurt Campbell on Child Abduction (July 28, 2011)

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