Pact is drafted to forestall parent's abducting a child

A treaty to curb the abduction of a child to another country by a parent has been drawn up by the 32-nation Hague Conference on International Law, during a three-week conference. The treaty was signed by Canada, Greece, France, and Switzerland immediately after it was adopted. Under the convention, courts and administrative authorities will return abducted children under 16 unless it is shown that the custodian was not actually exercising custody rights or had consented to or subsequently acquiesced in the child's removal, or where there is grave risk that the child's return would expose him or her to physical or psychological harm.