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  Bring Abducted Children Home (BAC Home)

REPORT: International Parental Child Abduction (IPCA): Foreign Policy Responses and Implications

9/29/2020

 
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The U.S. Congressional Research Service's released a new report on international parental child abduction. Here are a few highlights-

​“Some Members of Congress have consistently posed questions as to the most effective means of improving foreign government compliance with IPCA standards and processes, and have at times criticized the State Department for refusing to implement potentially more coercive foreign policy tools, such as sanctions. Such arguments have informed several instances in which high-level engagement, coupled with threats to foreign countries’ economic or trading benefits, appears to have preceded the resolution of certain IPCA cases.”

“Many experts and policymakers agree that international displacement of a child from his or her home environment to another, with potentially different social structures, cultures, and languages, can cause emotional and psychological harm to the child.”

“Responding to this issue, Congress has enacted legislation pertaining to IPCA, engaged in individual cases of abducted children, and conducted oversight of executive branch actions in this area. Congress has held 11 hearings on the subject since 2014, and some Members have on occasion blocked legislation unrelated to IPCA until specific cases were resolved.”

Outlook
"IPCA will likely continue to be a significant issue for American citizens and U.S. foreign policy, leading Congress to consider options for addressing specific cases and to pursue the broader foreign policy efforts to address this problem. As it considers policy options, Congress may examine the potential and alleged impacts of sanctions, technical assistance, and high-level outreach on compliance and on countries’ willingness to accede to the Hague Convention. In recent years, Congress has raised legislative options for strengthening the U.S. response to IPCA. It may continue to engage this issue through public hearings, direct involvement in specific cases, legislation, and oversight of the State Department Office of Children’s Issues."

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Japan Ignores Extradition Question

9/9/2020

 
Japan's Minister of Justice held a webinar "On Japan's Criminal Justice." As a registered participant BAC Home asked, 

"Recently Japan has pursued extradition from the U.S. of Michael and Peter Taylor who are accused of aiding Carlos Ghosn in fleeing Japan. On Sept 4,  U.S. Magistrate Judge Donald Cabell issued a ruling approving the extradition.

Some Japanese nationals are wanted and charged under the U.S. laws for international parental kidnapping (18 U.S.C.§1204) and with passport fraud (18 U.S.C.§1542). These combined are viewed by some to align with Articles 224 and 226 of the Japanese penal code. This would make them extraditable offenses.

Will the Ministry of Justice commit to extraditing these wanted individuals? If not, can you provide some details why Japan would not wish to uphold the extradition treaty with the U.S.?"

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Senators' Letter to Japan - Return Every Abducted AMerican CHild

8/11/2020

 
U.S. Senators Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Diane Feinstein (D-CA) sent a strongly worded letter to the Government of Japan stating, “…the facts on the ground show there is more work which must be done between our governments to bring American citizen children home to their parents.”

“Further delay by your government will only add to the anguish of left-behind American parents and the American public, and may cause us to consider additional legislative measures to resolve this issue.

We thank you for your attention to this matter, and for recognizing our joint commitment to securing the return of every single American child abducted abroad. We are counting on you to secure the return of our citizen children."

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400+ U.S. Children Kidnapped To Japan

5/29/2020

 
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How many U.S. children have been kidnapped to Japan?
More than 400 since 1994 when the U.S. Department of State's Office of Children's Issue's (OCI) was established. Japan is internationally known as a black hole for child abduction.

Where does this 400+ figure come from?
It comes from data provided by the U.S. Department of State. Representative Chris Smith reported at the May 24, 2011 hearing in the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee, “Japan has by far the worst record of all. It has not issued and enforced the return order for a single one of the more than 321 American children abducted there since 1994, when the recordkeeping began.”[1]
​
321 was also the figure reported to us in our July 2011 meeting with OCI by then director Beth Payne along with then Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and Pacific Kurt Campbell.

At this meeting we requested updated figures dating back to 1994. On August 25, 2011 parents of children kidnapped to Japan received a response stating, "
As of August 19, 2011, that statistic is 268 cases involving 374 children."


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Parental child abduction becomes a diplomatic embarrassment for Japan ahead of G-7

8/22/2019

 
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...studies show that depriving children of access to one of their parents can be
traumatic and psychologically damaging, says Noriko Odagiri, a professor of clinical psychology at Tokyo International University.


“Children feel like their father abandoned them, that he doesn’t love them anymore,” she said. 

Morehouse is frustrated that President Trump has, on Abe’s insistence, advocated strongly for Japanese citizens who were abducted by North Korea in the 1970s and 1980s, meeting their families and raising the issue with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, but has not done so for hundreds of stranded American children.

The president “ran on a statement and policy of ‘America First,’ ” he said. “He ought to put American kidnapped children first, and bring them home from Japan and other countries.”

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International Alliance Sends Letter to G7 Leaders On Japan Abductions

7/5/2019

 
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For the second year in a row, international partners of the G7 Kidnapped to Japan Reunification Project wrote to representatives of the G7 countries in advance of the 45th G7 summit that will be held on August 24-26, 2019 in Biarritz, France. The international alliance is comprised of parents and organizations from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The immediate objective is to put the Japanese parental child abduction issue on the G7 Summit agenda and bring about a rapid resolution to this crisis affecting the human rights of thousands of children abducted to or within Japan.

Since the letter was sent on April 24, 2019, French President Emmanuel Macron and Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte have made statements to the press on the abduction crisis to and within Japan. President Macron confirmed he has raised the issue with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. 


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Coalition 2019 Briefing

5/22/2019

 
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Congress United for Action: Strive to Return America’s Stolen Children
​U.S. Capitol, S-115

Formal Remarks
Members of Congress (Invited)
​
International Parental Child Abduction:  A Unifying Issue for Congress

Use the Tools 
Accountability and Returns Under the Goldman Act

International Parental Kidnapping Crime Act of 1993
Improving Victim Response and Charging Rates under federal IPKA statutes

Two Teen Survivors Share Their Experiences

Count Children, Not Cases
Affecting Data-Driven Solutions in the Departments of State and Justice
 
What American Families Need from Congress
Congressional Solutions through Casework, Legislation and Oversight
 
Speakers:
Dr. Noelle Hunter, mother of an American child abducted to Mali
Co-founder and President of iStand Parent Network and Coalition Partner
view written remarks

Ravi Parmar, father of an American child abducted to India
Co-founder of Bring Our Kids Home and Coalition Partner

Jerry Pfeifer, survivor of international parental child abduction
Leo Zagaris, survivor of international parental child abduction


Jeffery Morehouse, father of an American child abducted to Japan
Co-founder and Executive Director of Bring Abducted Children Home and Coalition Partner
view written remarks

Formal Remarks by Members of Congress:
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell*
U.S. Senator Thom Tillis
(by video provided to The Coalition)
U.S. Senator Diane Feinstein (in a statement read by her staff)*
U.S. Representative Chris Smith*
*not included in the briefing video

Tillis & Feinstein Urge DOJ to Prosecute Individuals Who Unlawfully Abduct American Children

3/1/2019

 
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
​
CONTACTS:
Daniel Keylin (Tillis)|(202) 224-6342
Ashley Schapitl (Feinstein)|(202) 224-9629

Senators Also Seek Commitment to Provide Training for Law Enforcement Officers to Secure Return of American Children

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Senators Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) urged Attorney General Bill Barr to make full use of the International Parental Kidnapping Crime Act to combat international parental child abduction.

Every year, several hundred American children are abducted by one parent and brought to a foreign country, where they are isolated from their other parent, family members, and friends. Abduction can have a profound impact on a child’s mental, physical, and emotional well-being.

The International Parental Kidnapping Crime Act criminalizes the removal of a child from the United States with “the intent to obstruct the lawful exercise of parental rights.” Individuals found guilty of violating this statute are subject to criminal fines and the possibility of imprisonment of up to three years. These penalties provide powerful inducement for the taking parent to return a wrongfully taken or retained American child abroad.

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Tillis and Feinstein Introduce Bipartisan Resolution (S.Res.23) to Combat International Parental Child Abduction

1/17/2019

 
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​FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
​

CONTACTS:
Daniel Keylin (Tillis) | (202) 224-6342
Ashley Schapitl (Feinstein) | (202) 224-9629
Stephanie Penn (McConnell) | (202) 224-8285
Robert Sumner (Crapo) | (202) 224-6142
Elana Ross (Klobuchar) | (202) 430-7973
Dan Holler (Rubio) | (202) 224-3041

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) introduced a bipartisan Senate resolution (S.Res.23) that designates April 2019 as “Countering International Parental Child Abduction” month and instructs the federal government to educate state and local law enforcement about the issue and how to combat it.

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Tragedy of children abducted from dads and taken to Japan

1/16/2019

 
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Japanese leaders and diplomats regularly lambast North Korea for the abduction of their citizens by state spies – one of countless human rights abuses committed by Pyongyang.

What is less known is that hundreds of American children have been abducted to Japan in defiance of international conventions, while at home, hundreds of thousands of Japanese children suffer from facto parental kidnappings.

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Tillis & Feinstein Press State Department To Do More To Bring Abducted Children Back Home

1/2/2019

 
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

​CONTACTS:
Daniel Keylin (Tillis)| (202) 224-6342
Ashley Schapitl (Feinstein) | (202) 224-9629
 ​

​WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Senators Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) urged Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to make more relentless and effective efforts to bring abducted American children back home to the United States by using all of the tools and resources at the State Department’s disposal.

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Japan's Continuity Principle Keeping Children Kidnapped

12/20/2018

 
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The Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan hosted a panel in Tokyo to discuss domestic and international parental child abduction. Topics included harm to the children, shortcomings in Japanese family law and how Japan's Continuity Principle ​is keeping children kidnapped. Panelists included:
  • Mr. Akira Ueno, Attorney, Nihonbashi Sakura Law Firm
  • Professor Noriko Odagiri, Professor of Clinical Psychology Tokyo International University
  • Mr. Tommaso Perina, an Italian Father
  • Mr.Vincent Fichot, a French Father

‘Bring Our Children Home’: US Urged to Use All Legal Powers to Return Abductees

12/12/2018

 
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WASHINGTON—Parents Jeffery Morehouse, Juan Garaicoa, and Michelle Littleton sat before a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on Dec. 10 to testify about the same terrible fate of their children—international abduction by a spouse.

“While most children were returning to school, my children were boarding a plane and being kidnapped to war-torn Lebanon,” Littleton, a mother of three, said.

“She had kidnapped our son to Japan,” said Morehouse, the founder and executive director of the non-profit Bring Abducted Children Home. “I don’t even know where he is being held.”

“Time is of the essence and now is the time to bring our children home,” pleaded Garaicoa, whose two children remain in Ecuador.

While the countries, children, and spouses are different, they share the same frustration of fighting to be reunited with their children in foreign lands.
Morehouse won custody of his children in U.S. courts—and twice in Japan—but his teenage son, Mochi, who was taken by his wife at age 6, remains in Japan with his mother because there is no enforcement mechanism under Japanese law.
​
“In the end, the court refused to reunite Mochi and me,” said Morehouse.”It does not matter how a child ends up with the abductor in Japan, they will not uphold laws and treaties to return children to their rightful home.”

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Parents call on Congress to pressure foreign nations to return their children

12/10/2018

 
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Jeffery Morehouse dropped his 6-year-old son off with his mother for a weeklong visit in 2010 — and she managed to abscond with him to Japan.

On Monday, Mr. Morehouse, executive director of Bring Abducted Children Home, called on Congress to step up American efforts to bring his son and other children back from overseas, saying the government’s actions are inconsistent and insufficient.
​
“President Trump ran on putting America first,” Mr. Morehouse said in his testimony to the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on global human rights. “Well, America first means putting American children first and bringing them home.”

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Jeffery Morehouse Testifies to Congress 'Japan's Systemic Failure to Return Kidnapped Children'

12/10/2018

 
"Prime Minister Abe for the past two years has spread it all over the press how President Trump and the U.S. are going to help Japan resolve the 1977-1983 kidnappings of 17 of their citizens in to North Korea. I feel for those parents. I understand their pain. It is my pain. It is our pain. We should help with that. It's the right thing to do.
 
President Trump ran on putting America first. Well, America first means putting American children first and bringing them home. Prime Minister Abe, what about returning the 400+ American children kidnapped to Japan since 1994? What about returning Mochi?

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Rep. Smith calls for Trump administration crackdown on international parental child abduction

12/10/2018

 
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WASHINGTON – House Foreign Affairs subcommittee Chairman Chris Smith called on the Trump administration to take concerted action to stop international parental child abduction.

“The Trump administration can and must use current law, especially the tools embedded in the Goldman Act, to more aggressively bring American children home to their families,” Smith (R-N.J.) said at a hearing on Monday that featured testimony from parents whose children were abducted abroad.
Smith said “child abduction is child abuse.”

Smith said more than 450 American children are abducted each year. He said 11,000 children were abducted internationally between 2008 and 2017.

Panelists relayed their experiences to the committee and implored action.
“The last time I saw my son was on Father’s Day of 2010,” said Jeffery Morehouse, executive director of Bring Abducted Children Home.

That day, Morehouse said, he dropped off his then-6-year-old-son, Mochi Atomu Imoto Morehouse, with his ex-wife for a week-long visit. Three weeks later, Morehouse said, the police informed him that his wife and son had been reported missing.
​

“I knew immediately what happened,” Morehouse recalled. “She succeeded in what she had threatened to do. She kidnapped our son to Japan.”

Morehouse said he pursued the matter in Japanese courts and won.

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Caught! Japan Seminar On How To Abduct

11/8/2018

 
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On May 15, 2018 as Japan was about to be cited for International Parental Child Abduction by the United States, they held a public seminar at the House of Culture of Japan in Paris co-organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan and the Japan Federation of Bar Associations. In an audio recording from inside the event, we hear participants being educated about The Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Parental Child Abduction. They are also taught how to prevent having their children returned to France should they take them without consent to live in Japan. More simply put, organizers lay out how to abduct to Japan and get away with it.

The audio recording obtained from the seminar has been reviewed by multiple bilingual persons. They agree that it and the transcript of key sections provided in French and English are accurate and the purpose is clear. A more complete transcript of this portion of the seminar is available in English and Japanese.

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Feinstein, Grassley to Justice Department: Enforce Kidnapping Laws

7/30/2018

 
Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), ranking member and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, have requested Attorney General Jeff Sessions detail steps the Justice Department is taking to adhere to the International Parental Kidnapping Crime Act and return U.S. citizen children to their parents. The letter follows a Judiciary Committee hearing on the issue.

The senators wrote, “Unfortunately, our review of public records suggests individuals are rarely—if ever—prosecuted under this statute. Worse still, our conversations with victims of international parental child abduction and their advocates suggests that many federal prosecutors are either unaware of the statute’s existence or do not understand the vital role the threat of prosecution can play in securing the return of abducted children. It is clear that the Department can do more with respect to IPKCA.”

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Is Japan Willing To Embrace The Hague Abduction Convention?

7/24/2018

 
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There is a systemic, entrenched pattern that further harms the children abducted by a parent to and within Japan. It is known as "The Continuity Principle." Simply put, judges and attorneys representing abductors manipulate the "best interest of the child" to rule that the child should remain alienated and ignore how they ended up with the abducting parent. In Japan, abducting your child is encouraged because it assures you will keep possession. We see this in international cases where courts may determine the child was taken to Japan without permission, sometimes acknowledging illegal acts, and then rule the child should remain with the abducting parent.
 
To impact the ongoing child abduction crisis positively, the most effective way currently is to encourage Japanese judges to end using the continuity principle and adopt the “friendly parent rule." In Japan's interpretation, the friendly parent is the one more supportive of the other parent being an integral part of the child's life. Adopting this would create a standard for the child to maintain a relationship with both parents. Japan could then be more in sync with The Hague Abduction Convention, United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the revised Japanese civil code article 766.[1]


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IS JAPAN A HAVEN FOR PARENTS WHO KIDNAP THEIR OWN CHILDREN?

7/15/2018

 
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Walter Benda has only seen his two daughters once in the past 23 years. His wife disappeared from their California home in July 1995 after he had gone to work one morning, utterly unprepared for the disappearance of his family.

After learning that his wife had traveled back to Japan, he received no help from Japanese authorities to find his daughters, despite the US government issuing an international arrest warrant against his wife for kidnapping.


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Parental child abductions are becoming a serious human rights violation in Japan

6/30/2018

 
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Bolan Times ( GENEVA ) : Bolan Times correspondent in Geneva Switzerland exclusively interviewed a well-known Japanese human rights activist Mr. Shunichi Fujiki who visited ongoing 38th United Nations Human Rights Council on 25th of June.

Some of the victims in the United States are holding rallies to get their children back to them after they divorced with Japanese wives and U.S. Congress has been holding hearings from the victims whose children have been abducted by one of the parents.

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U.N. Told Parental Child Abductions Serious Human Rights Violation In Japan

6/28/2018

 
PictureShunichi Fujiki speaking at the UN Human Rights Council



Addressing at the United Nations Human Rights Council this week Mr. Shunichi Fujiki of the International Career Support Association declared, "Parental child abductions are becoming a serious human rights violation in Japan."

"The abducted child is at the mercy of the abducting parent. The child can no longer go home and [is] forced to sever their relationship with the abandoned parent."

Children have the right to be loved by both parents. He continues, "In Japan many children are deprived of the basic rights because of the current system and crooked lawyers."

Rep. Mimi Walters Shares the Story of Randy Collins & Keisuke

6/27/2018

 
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U.S. Congresswoman Mimi Walters (CA-45) speaks on the House floor about Keisuke's 2008 kidnapping to Japan by his mother and Japan's terrible record on international parental child abduction.

“Japan continues to have one of the worst records in returning abducted children like Keisuke [Collins] to the United States,” declared Rep. Walters.

She closed, "this is a grave injustice and I will continue to support Randy and all
families whose children have been wrongfully abducted."

In 2011, partnering with Mr. Collins while she served in the California State Senate she introduced SB 1206 which was signed into law in 2012 as Keisuke's Law.

Congress Asks State Why They Aren't Using Sanctions

5/18/2018

 
The House and The Senate both held hearings on international parental child abduction in April. One of the focal points was the State Department's lack of use of the sanction tools under The Goldman Act.
Below is a condensed video where senators ask about the sanctions during the April 24, 2018 Senate Committee on the Judiciary hearing, "Abducted Abroad: Exploring the Plight of International Parental Child Abduction and its Effect on American Families."
Representatives asked a similar line of questions in the condensed video of the April 11, 2018 House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee hearing, "No Abducted Child Left Behind: An Update on the Goldman Act."

Shocking TV Broadcast From Japan Supports Parental Kidnapping

3/29/2018

 
The network, Japanese Cultural Channel Sakura, uses racist overtones to mock the U.S. and parents of internationally kidnapped children for wanting to be part of their children's lives. Below is the disturbing broadcast in its entirety. ​
Channel Sakura has hosted the Prime Minister as well as other top government officials on their programs.
​

The following is a condensed broadcast version of a news program in Japan supporting international parental child abduction.

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