Only Hong Kong, Macau, Israel, Thailand and Sri Lanka, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan are contracting states to the Child Abduction Convention.

Japan is -with India- one of only two non-contracting states to the convention to rank as one of the top ten destination countries for the abduction of American children.

[30] Indian courts rarely recognize U.S. custody orders, preferring to exert their own jurisdiction in rulings that tend to favor the parent who wants to keep the child in India.

Some American Muslim parents have considered traveling to Saudi Arabia on Umrah (religious pilgrimage to Mecca) as a means to visit their children.

If a woman is not divorced, the Saudi Embassy has the right to ask for her husband's permission for another family member (e.g. son) to act as the mother's Mahram.

Between 1999 and 2010 the reports have cited Germany as a "country of concern," having "enforcement problems," being "not fully compliant" or "demonstrated patterns of noncompliance" almost every year.

The convention has force of law and has primacy over domestic law; first instance courts can hear Convention cases under expedited procedures (provisional or "emergency" measures), enforcement mechanisms exist and the Greek Central Authority will provide pro-bono legal assistance to victimized parents during Hague proceedings before the appropriate court in Greece.

Poland has been cited in the compliance Reports for every year from 2000 to 2008 as either a "country of concern," having "enforcement problems" or "demonstrating patterns of noncompliance" with the Hague Abduction Convention resulting in an ongoing dialogue between the Polish Consul General and the Office of Children's Issues Director in Washington, D.C. and U.S. Embassy officials and Ministry of Justice officials in Warsaw.

Even in cases where the left-behind parent has provided specific information about where the child is located, the ability of the Polish authorities to verify it is ineffective.

In one U.S. case an abducting parent in hiding was able to protest a return order in court while also collecting child support payments from the government.

This situation indicates that institutionally there is a disturbing lack of coordination among local law enforcement, the Polish Central Authority, and social welfare agencies.

High-level Swiss officials have defended this practice citing the "special relationship" between mothers and young children as influencing its decision to uphold the lower court's denial of the left-behind parent's application for return of an abducted child to the United States.

The report also observed that Swiss authorities are reluctant to actively enforce orders granting return to the United States or access to the child by the left-behind parent.

Due to unknown reasons of the judiciary, cases have remained unresolved longer than 18 months, a factor normally cited in all instances in which a nation has been determined to be noncompliant with treaty obligations.

Despite far exceeding the acceptable timeline for resolution of such cases, and in contradiction to policy, the US Department of State has so far declined to label Belize as a country with a pattern of noncompliance.

[39] The report states that Brazil has a history of non-compliance, and the Brazilian judiciary has a general inability to adjudicate a final and unappealable decision in Convention cases.

Senator Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey placed a hold on a trade bill which allows certain countries, including Brazil, to export certain products to the United States duty-free.

The US Department of State has denoted Chile as a country demonstrating "patterns of noncompliance" or a "not fully compliant" with the Hague Abduction Convention every year during the five period between 2005 and 2009 for its judicial Performance.

In addition, it is customary in Chilean courts to order psychological or social evaluations in all cases involving minor children, regardless of whether there is evidence of possible risk to the child in being returned to his or her country of habitual residence.

In 2008, a Chilean court ordered a scheduled access visit by the LBP, and the left behind parent purchased and confirmed his plane ticket and accommodations for the trip.

According to the Convention Compliance Reports, Colombia ranks as one of the top ten destinations for the abduction of children from the United States.

Since the treaty went into effect the Dominican Republic ranks in the top ten list of countries that are the source and destination of abducted children between the United States.

[citation needed] In cases of international child abduction an amparo can be filed at any point and effectively blocks progression of legal procedures until it has been heard, often many months, or even years later.

According to the compliance Reports, Venezuela was cited as a country "non-compliant" with the Hague Convention in 2006 and as demonstrating "patterns of noncompliance" in 2008 and 2009.

The US State Department has a virtual monopoly on information in such cases, but refuses to act as a vigorous advocate for left-behind American parents while also preventing the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children or anyone else from playing that role.

State Department attorney Thomas Johnson remarked that when he reminded one senior State Department official with Child Abduction Convention responsibilities that she works for the American people, her immediate response was: "I don't work for the American people; I work for the Secretary of State", demonstrating the department's inherent conflict of interest (i.e., a desire to maintain "good" bilateral foreign relations for their own sake that overrides assertive and effective advocacy on behalf of American citizens).

Mowbray's second chapter in "Dangerous Diplomacy", titled "Cold Shoulder: State's Smallest Victim's", is dedicated to an analysis of the assistance provided to American parents left in the wake of an international child abduction.

This inherent conflict of interest between the two roles is magnified by what the book defines as the "culture of State", a culture characterized by extreme moral relativism, valuing process over substance and misplaced priorities that reward failures by promotions or high paying jobs "consulting" for the foreign government of the country that they'd previously been paid to advocate America's interests in.

I don't doubt the sincerity or the dedication of the professionals in the State Department who have lead responsibility for this problem, but they do not have the tools and powers to do their job effectively.

"the principal reason other nations, whether they are signatories to the Hague Convention or not, refuse to cooperate with the United States in returning abducted American children is that there are no real consequences for failing to do so."