U.S. Diplomatic Protest - Brazil & International Child Abduction

Jeremy D. Morley

In June 2021, the Deputy Chief of Mission at U.S. Embassy Brasilia delivered a formal diplomatic protest known as a “demarche” to the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, notifying Brazilian officials that the Department again cited Brazil in the 2021 Annual Report on International Child Abduction for demonstrating a pattern of noncompliance during 2020.

The demarche expressed concern about Brazil's continued failure to comply with its obligations under the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction.

In particular, the demarche noted U.S. concerns with excessive delays within Brazil's judiciary and language in more than one judicial decision that was clearly noncompliant with the Convention.

The State Department has reported that the Brazilian judicial authorities failed to regularly implement and comply with the provisions of the Convention and failed to take appropriate steps to locate children in an abduction case, contributing to Brazil's persistent failure to implement and abide by the provisions of the Convention.

As a result of these persistent failures, 75 percent of requests for the return of abducted children under the Convention remained unresolved for more than 12 months. On average, these cases were unresolved for three years and eight months.

Brazil was previously cited for demonstrating a pattern of noncompliance in the 2006-2020 Annual Reports.

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