US Parents Seek Kerry's Help Returning Abducted Children From Brazil

WASHINGTON, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 16th Augst,2016) - The parents of seven children illegally taken from the United States to Brazil asked US Secretary of State John Kerry Monday to sanction the South American country. The children living in Brazil were each taken from the US by a parent in violation of legal custody agreements, a situation that would require Brazil to return the children under a Hague convention that both the US and Brazil have signed. "Our abducted children desperately need your help," the parents wrote in a letter to Kerry. "We ask that you dramatically increase the diplomatic and economic pressure on the government of Brazil to follow its treaty obligations by employing the sanction options given to you two years ago," the parents said, requesting the US diplomatic chief apply a 2014 law allowing the US to punish countries that do not promptly return abducted children.

The law created an annual report to assess every country's history of child abductions and to require President Barack Obama to take action against nations with poor records. Potential US measures include refusing export licenses for American technology, cutting development assistance and putting off scientific or cultural exchanges, punishments the president can waive.