During his tenure as president Clinton was not known for addressing the issue of international child abduction and his administration actively campaigned against the International Parental Kidnapping Crime Act of 1993. When Congress passed it anyway he eviscerated it with a signing statement that all but said it should not be enforced (and it hasn't been.)
Do you have a link where I could find out more information about that legislation? I can search for it , but if you know a good reference, that would be great.
Here's the legislation:
http://207.58.181.246/pdf_files/library/Parental_kidnapping_crime_act.pdf
Clinton's statement when signing it:
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=46192
This article addresses some of the history:
Justice Ignores Stolen Kids (Issue date 11/29/99)
Despite recent testimony before Congress by beleaguered parents of internationally kidnapped children, State and Justice departments continue to dismiss these crimes
http://www.findthekids.com/pdf/justice.pdfWhen I talked to the FBI about my sons' abduction in '08 they all but repeated Clinton's statement saying "the Hague Convention represents the most effective way to return children from Mexico" despite the fact that the Hague Convention is almost entirely ineffective in Mexico and the children who do return from Mexico non-voluntarily do so as the direct result of criminal charges and extradition threats or deportation proceedings in the case of non-Mexican citizen abductors (even though State will cite all the above non-Hague returns as "successful Hague returns" painting a criminally fraudulent picture of the stark reality of Hague proceedings in countries like Mexico.)
The IPKCA is almost completely ignored by the Justice Department who use the Hague Convention and the "possibility that criminal charges will cause complications in the Hague proceedings", and don't "necessarily result in the return of a child" as pretexts to do nothing, leaving LBP's with only the State Department to assist them in moving forward with a Hague case. Not only do they not file charges but they do not investigate to gather evidence or file reports that would provide crucial evidence for use in a Hague trial, nor do they provide any assistance to parents trying to use the Hague Convention to recover their children -- even when the country holding the children is notoriously noncompliant with the Hague Convention. Even more to the point, the USDOJ has abused "prosecutorial discretion" to even refuse to file charges against parents that have abducted children to non-Hague countries.
