International Child Abduction:

International child abduction: definition

International child abduction means that one of the parents has illegally brought the child to another country, or is keeping the child in a country, with the intention to keep the child there to live in that country.

Illegally means: not in accordance with the rights of custody under the law of the state in which the child was habitually resident immediately before the removal of retention. and without permission of the other parent who has custody.

The most important question to be answered is if the country involved has gratified the The Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. In that case a procedure can be started in the country where the child is kept illegally, to ask the court to decide that the child must be brought back to the country where it was habitually resident before the abduction. In principle the court will decide so, unless a year has already passed when you start the procedure.

The parent who wants the court to decide that the child can stay, will have to convince the court that either:

  • there is no abduction,
  • the other parent agreed,
  • bringing the child back to the country where the child was habitually resident before the abduction will cause danger to his or hers physical or mental situation of cause the child to be brought into an otherwise considered unbearable situation,
  • the child is resisting his of hers return to the country where it was habitually resident (the child has to be considered old enough to form his opinion on the matter),
  • or that the return to the previous country would be a breach of human rights.