The U.S. State Department has just issued its 2016 Annual Report on International Parental Child Abduction under the Sean and David Goldman International Child Abduction Prevention and Return Act.

The Report cites 21 countries that either demonstrated a pattern of noncompliance as defined in the Act or otherwise failed to comply with any of their obligations under the Convention.

The Report identifies 11 countries that, although they  are parties to the Hague Convention and are partners with the United States with respect to the Convention, have “demonstrated a pattern of noncompliance” with the Convention in 2015. These countries are Argentina, The Bahamas, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Peru, and Romania.

The Report also lists two countries as countries that failed to comply with one or more of their obligations under the Convention with respect to the resolution of abduction or access cases. These countries are Austria and Japan.

Finally, the Report lists 8 countries that are not signatories to the Hague Convention but nevertheless “demonstrated a pattern of noncompliance” in 2015. These countries are Egypt, India, Jordan, Lebanon, Nicaragua, Oman, Pakistan, and Tunisia.

It is extremely important to note that the failure of the State Department to identify a country as noncompliant with the Convention does not mean that the country is indeed compliant or that the legal or administrative authorities in such a country will return abducted children promptly to the United States.

Follow this link to view the full report:
https://travel.state.gov/content/childabduction/en/legal/compliance.html