Proposed amendment to the International Child Abduction Remedies Act (ICARA)

This week we wrote an open letter to support proposed amendments to ICARA, the USA's International Child Abduction Remedies Act.

Here is the text of our letter:

The founders of Hague Explained CIC, a nonprofit in the UK, write to show support of the proposed amendment to the International Child Abduction Remedies Act (ICARA) to improve the operation and implementation of the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction (henceforth the “Hague Abduction Convention”) for victims of Domestic Violence (DV) and child abuse, and for other purposes, in short the ‘ICARA Improvements for Victims of Domestic Violence Act of 2025’

This bill aims to ensure that DV is not further facilitated when promoting return, under the terms of the Hague Abduction Convention, of victims leaving abusive relationships to seek safety in their own countries.

In the UK, where Hague Explained CIC is based, the Domestic Abuse Act 2021 (England & Wales) recognises that any child in a household in which there is DV is themselves a victim of DV. In the USA, however, this has so far not been recognised in law.

The US State Department did in 2010 acknowledge that judges do not always recognise that DV against a mother is harmful to a child, so they too often return a child to their mothers’ abuser when she has tried to seek safety in another jurisdiction. And as by far the majority (75%*) of Hague Abduction Convention cases now are initiated by fathers and the taking parent is the mother, DV as a defence is rarely recognised.

At Hague Explained, we work to raise awareness of this fact with global organisations and hope that the USA will pass this Bill to help prevent the further facilitation of DV against American children.

Thank you for your interest in the progress of the ICARA Improvements for Victims of Domestic Violence Act of 2025, we hope you will support it.

* "In 2021, 75% of taking persons were the mothers of the children", 

HCCH