List
| Name | Portrait | Took office | Left office |
|---|---|---|---|
| Susan S. Jacobs |  | September 30, 2011 [2] | 2017 [3] |
| Suzanne Lawrence |  | September 2017 [4] | |
| Michelle Bernier-Toth |  | January 2020 [5] | Incumbent |
The Special Advisor for Children's Issues is a foreign policy position created by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and announced on July 1, 2010. Susan S. Jacobs is the first person to fill the newly created role of Special Advisor for Children's Issues. Working with the Office of Children's Issues, the Special Advisor actively engages with foreign government officials to protect the welfare and interests of children. [1]
| Name | Portrait | Took office | Left office |
|---|---|---|---|
| Susan S. Jacobs | | September 30, 2011 [2] | 2017 [3] |
| Suzanne Lawrence | | September 2017 [4] | |
| Michelle Bernier-Toth | | January 2020 [5] | Incumbent |
The United States secretary of state (SecState) is a member of the executive branch of the federal government of the United States and the head of the U.S. Department of State. The office holder is the second-highest-ranking member of the president's Cabinet, after the Vice President, and ranks fourth in the United States presidential line of succession; first amongst cabinet secretaries.
International adoption is a type of adoption in which an individual or couple residing in one country becomes the legal and permanent parent(s) of a child who is a national of another country. In general, prospective adoptive parents must meet the legal adoption requirements of their country of residence and those of the country whose nationality the child holds.
The Bureau of Consular Affairs (CA) is a bureau of the United States Department of State reporting to the under secretary of state for management. The mission of the Bureau is to administer laws, formulate regulations and implement policies relating to the broad range of consular services and immigration. As of 2021, the bureau is headed by the Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs, Rena Bitter.
The Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction or Hague Abduction Convention is a multilateral treaty that provides an expeditious method to return a child who was wrongfully taken by a parent from one country to another country. In order for the Convention to apply, both countries must be Contracting States; i.e. both must have adopted the Convention.
International child abduction in Japan refers to the illegal international abduction or removal of children from their country of habitual residence by an acquaintance or family member to Japan or their retention in Japan in contravention to the law of another country. Most cases involve a Japanese parent taking their children to Japan in defiance of visitation or joint custody orders issued by Western courts. The issue is a growing problem as the number of international marriages increases. Parental abduction often has a particularly devastating effect on parents who may never see their children again.
Child laundering is a tactic used in illegal or fraudulent international adoptions. It may involve child trafficking and child acquisition through payment, deceit or force. The children may then be held in sham orphanages while formal adoption processes are used to send them to adoptive parents in another country.
The Ministry of Human Rights and Citizenship (MDHC), former Ministry of Woman, Family and Human Rights (2019–2022) and Secretariat for Human Rights of the Presidency of the Republic (1997–2015) is an office attached to the Presidency of Brazil. Its purpose is to implement, promote, and protect human rights, civic rights, and the rights of children, adolescents, women, families, the elderly, and the disabled.
The Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption is an international convention dealing with international adoption, child laundering, and child trafficking in an effort to protect those involved from the corruption, abuses, and exploitation which sometimes accompanies international adoption. The convention has been considered crucial because it provides a formal international and intergovernmental recognition of intercountry adoption to ensure that adoptions under the convention will generally be recognized and given effect in other party countries.
Child abduction or child theft is the unauthorized removal of a minor from the custody of the child's natural parents or legally appointed guardians.
Elizabeth Frawley Bagley is an American diplomat, attorney, political activist and philanthropist who is the United States ambassador to Brazil in the Biden administration. She previously served as the United States ambassador to Portugal from 1994 to 1997.
In the Goldman child abduction case David Goldman fought for his son Sean Goldman to be returned to the United States after his abduction by his mother to Brazil in 2004. After years of court battles, Sean was returned to his father five and a half years later in 2009. This case of international child abduction gained significant attention in the media and from U.S. politicians.
Catherine Irene Jacqueline Meyer, Baroness Meyer, is a British politician and businesswoman. She is the widow of Sir Christopher Meyer, the British former Ambassador to the United States. In 1999, she founded the charity PACT, now Action Against Abduction. In October 2020, she was appointed as the Prime Minister's Trade Envoy to Ukraine.
Mexico is amongst the world's most popular sources and destinations for international child abduction while also being widely regarded as having one of the least effective systems of protecting and returning internationally abducted children within its borders.
The term international child abduction is generally synonymous with international parental kidnapping,child snatching, and child stealing.
The Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, commonly referred to as the Hague Abduction Convention, is a multilateral treaty developed by the Hague Conference on Private International Law. The treaty provides an expeditious method of returning a child taken illegally from one country to another. It was concluded on October 25, 1980
International child abduction in Brazil comprises cases in which the removal of a child by one of the joint holders of custody or non-custodial or contested parents to Brazil in contravention of other laws of other countries and/or the desires of other custody claimants. The phenomenon of international child abduction is defined in international law and legislated on by the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, which entered into force in Brazil on January 1, 2000, and aims to trace abducted children, secure their prompt return to the country of habitual residence and organize or secure effective rights of access. In 2010 Brazil was accused by the US State Department of being non-compliant with the Hague Convention.
The Office of Children's Issues is an agency of the Bureau of Consular Affairs, which in turn is part of the U.S. Department of State. The Office of Children's Issues was created in 1994 under the leadership of Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs Mary Ryan and that of her successor Maura Harty. The Office of Children's Issues is divided into three units — a Prevention unit, which seeks to prevent international child abductions; an Abduction unit, which responds to abductions seeks to facilitate a return of abducted children; and an Adoption unit.
As a result of its high level of immigration and emigration and its status as common source and destination for a large amount of international travel the United States has more incoming and outgoing international child abductions per year than any other country. To address this issue the United States played an active role in the drafting of the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction Although the United States was one of the first nations to sign the Convention in 1981 the Convention did not enter into force for the US until 1988 with the enactment by Congress of the International Child Abduction Remedies Act which translated the Convention into US law.
Susan S. Jacobs is the first person to fill the newly created role of Special Advisor for International Children's Issues. This new foreign policy position and assignment for Jacobs was created by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and announced on July 1, 2010.
International child abduction in South Korea refers to the illegal removal of children from their country of habitual residence by an acquaintance or family member to South Korea, or their illegal retention in South Korea. This issue overlaps with related practices within the South Korean family law system, such as the lack of meaningful protection against domestic abductions and visitation interference, combined with the default expectation of sole custody. Many of these practices also undermine South Korea's ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
