The World Assembly,
Recalling the prior work of the World Assembly in protecting the rights of children and minors,
Observing that a number of families involve multiple nationalities,
Believing that the best interests of the child are of paramount importance, and
Firmly convinced that it is presumptively in the best interests of a child for disputes between parents to be handled with a minimum of disruption to the child’s life,
Hereby:
1. Defines International Child Abduction, for the purposes of this resolution, as the unilateral removal of a child from their normal residence, or retention in a place other than their normal residence by a parent or legal guardian across international borders in contravention of the custody or access rights of another parent, another legal guardian, or the child;
2. Further defines normal residence as the place where a child lived and carried out the usual patterns of residence before the International Child Abduction;
3. Mandates that in determining a child’s normal residence, the following factors must be considered in order of importance:
- Any prior agreements, judgments, decrees or other legally effective instrument adjudicating or determining the residency of a child which, if available, are definitive without reference to further evidence or inquiry;
- School, Extracurricular, and Community involvement of the child,
- The intentions and statements made by the parents prior to the International Child Abduction,
- The length of time the parent(s) and/or child lived in a place,
- The location of the parents’ employers,
- The location of the parents’ families;
4. Instructs courts to limit their inquiry solely to the above factors, and to consider all available evidence, including the testimony of the child where appropriate, weighing on those factors;
5. Requires that member states, upon application for assistance from a child’s parent or guardian, return all victims of International Child Abduction to the government of their normal residence unless one of the conditions set forth below are met;
6. Accepts that member states are not required to return a child in cases where shown by overwhelming evidence:
- The return of the child would violate World Assembly law,
- There is a grave risk that such return would result in severe and immediate physical or psychological harm to the child,
- There was an agreement by the parents permitting the removal or retention;
7. Clarifies that in applying the above standard a member state shall:
- Refrain from making any consideration on the underlying merits of any custody dispute but shall assume the competence and good faith of the tribunals of normal residence to resolve the underlying issues in the best interests of the child,
- Abstain from the consideration of perceived faults or deficiencies of the law, legal system, or cultural circumstances of a child’s normal residence,
- Take judicial notice of, admit into evidence, and give full effect to the valid public records, legal proceedings, judgments, and agreements of the normal residence offered in support of the return of a child; and
8. Requires member states to recognize International Child Abduction as a grave act with consequences appropriate thereto, which shall not be lesser than that ascribed to domestic child abduction.
OOC: This is a very rough draft. I am aware it needs quite a bit of work, so have at it. Let us also assume that the implications of the "Clarifies" list are features and not bugs unless there seems a clearly unintended consequence in lights of the goals of the resolution.
Edit: Newest Draft