Bring Abducted Children Home (BAC Home)
  • Home
  • About
  • How to Donate & Help
  • News & Action
  • Our Kidnapped Children
  • Resources
  • Contact Us
  • Home
  • About
  • How to Donate & Help
  • News & Action
  • Our Kidnapped Children
  • Resources
  • Contact Us
  Bring Abducted Children Home (BAC Home)

U.S. Embassy Japan AMERICAN VIEW - WINTER 2010

5/1/2010

 
Picture
From the Editor

Dear readers,

Konnichiwa. I hope you all enjoyed a nice holiday season with your families. My name is Ray Baca, and I am the Consul General at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo. I am happy to be the guest editor for this issue of "American View," which focuses on child abduction and custody issues.

As Consul General, I oversee the consular operations of the U.S. Mission throughout Japan, including a wide range of services for American citizens and visa services for foreign nationals. One of the most heart-breaking issues we face in serving American citizens abroad is the problem of international parental child abduction, situations where one parent takes a child away from the child's other parent, and denies the "left-behind parent" access to the child, or even to information about the child's welfare and whereabouts.

With the rise in the number of international marriages, this problem is one that continues to grow and grow throughout the world. "American View" introduced this topic in its Fall 2007 issue, in an interview with Michele Bond, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Overseas Citizens Services, an article which is still useful in understanding the problem. In May 2009, the U.S. Embassy, along with the embassies of Canada, France, and the United Kingdom, issued a joint statement at a press conference, calling on Japan to accede to the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction ("Hague Convention") and urging that Japan implement measures to enable parents who are separated from their children to maintain contact with them and to visit them. We continue such efforts through diplomacy at a variety of levels.

Because the family law systems of Japan and the U.S. appear to be quite different, particularly in the area of post-divorce parental rights, this edition of American View begins with an article by Professor Jeff Atkinson giving an overview of child custody and visitation in the United States. Of course, when the separating or divorcing parents are of different nationalities, the first legal matter is the determination of which court properly has jurisdiction over the case.

The Hague Convention, designed with the child's best interests in mind, provides an internationally accepted mechanism for dealing with such matters of jurisdiction. Professor Shinichiro Hayakawa's article explains the purpose and benefits of the Convention. In Japan, more and more parents, both foreign and Japanese, are seeking the opportunity to play a continuing role in their children's lives even after a marriage ends in divorce. They are organizing for mutual support in pursuing that goal and urging legal reform. One of these parents is American citizen Steve Christie, who has contributed an article on NPOs and groups working to resolve parental child abduction cases in Japan, which we hope will be useful to other left-behind parents.

Finally, we appreciate the statistics from our friends at some of the other foreign embassies in Tokyo (Canada, France, Great Britain, Spain) who are working on this difficult issue and hope that this issue contributes to international understanding of parental child abduction, and to a future resolution of these tragic cases.
Picture

Comments are closed.

    Categories

    All
    International Parental Child Abduction
    Japan
    Media Coverage
    Op Ed
    Personal Stories
    Public Outreach
    Testifying
    The White House
    United Nations
    U.S. Congress
    U.S. Department Of Defense
    U.S. Department Of State

    Archives

    November 2022
    October 2022
    June 2022
    March 2022
    January 2022
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    November 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    August 2019
    July 2019
    May 2019
    March 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    March 2018
    October 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    February 2017
    October 2016
    November 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    June 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    December 2013
    September 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    June 2010
    May 2010
    April 2010
    February 2010
    January 2010
    December 2009
    November 2009
    October 2009
    September 2009
    June 2009
    May 2009

    RSS Feed

©2023 Bring Abducted Children Home, Inc.