On Friday, 4 December, Cornelia Pieper, Minister of State at the Federal Foreign Office, will open the International Symposium on Child Abduction, the first such event to be organized by the Federal Foreign Office.

Throughout the day some 100 national and international experts will explore in different fora various aspects of child abduction and discuss relevant legal and political issues.

The Symposium brings together participants from North and South America, Asia and the Islamic world. The aim is to learn more about and better understand different perceptions of the problem and to reflect on ways to improve cooperation within as well as outside the framework of the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction.

International child abduction is one of the most terrible things children and their parents can experience. In an age of increasing international mobility such cases also present government and society with ever greater challenges.