A hearing to give a voice to the desperate ‘left behind parents’ who seek to be reunited with their children will be held Tuesday by Congressman Chris Smith (NJ-4th), chairman of the House congressional panel that oversees international human rights. There are more than 2,400 American children held wrongfully overseas.

    David Goldman, a father whose abducted American boy was held in Brazil for nearly five years, will testify. Only after intense pressure by Congress, the US State Department and international media attention did Brazil return the boy home to the U.S. in December 2009.  Other witnesses include left behind parents whose children have been taken to countries signatory to the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, as well as countries not signatory to the Hague.

WHO:   Congressman Smith, chairman of the human rights subcommittee on the Foreign Affairs Committee, David Goldman, and other parents of abducted children:  Sarah Edwards, mother of Eli, 3 who was abducted to Turkey while on vacation with his father in March 2010; Carlos Bermudez, father of Sage, 3, who was abducted to Mexico in June of 2008. Michael Elias, father of Jade, 5, and Michael, 3, who were abducted to Japan in December 2008 from their home in New Jersey; Joshua Izzard, father of Melisande, 3, who was abducted from her home in Chicago and taken to Russia by her mother in October 2010.

WHEN: Tuesday, May 24 @ 2 p.m.

WHERE: 2203 Rayburn House Office Building on the second floor.