Countries who have agreed to the Hague Convention on International Child Abduction are required by the terms of the treaty to assist in the location and recovery of children who are the victims of Parental Abduction, Parental Kidnapping or are being wrongfully withheld by their parent.

Under Article 10 of the treaty which states:

Article 10
The Central Authority of the State where the child is shall take or cause to be taken all appropriate measures in order to obtain the voluntary return of the child.

The problem for the left-behind parent is that the return is supposed to be ‘voluntary’ which makes this a more difficult process. Parents who are kidnapping or abducting their children are not motivated easily to return the child to the other parent. Which is why lawyers have to apply pressure through various means to force the abducting parent to abide by the court orders. We do that by working with the courts such as the Los Angeles Superior Court and the Los Angeles District Attorneys office when necessary.