High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Office of Children`s Issues is an agency of the Bureau of Consular Affairs, which in turn is part of the US Department of State. The Office of Children’s Issues was created in 1994 under the leadership of Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs Mary Ryan and that of her successor Maura Harty. The Office of Children`s Issues develops and coordinates policies and programs related to international child abduction. In this respect, it is the US Central Authority under the terms of the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction and the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption.