Child Abduction

About the Hague Convention

What is it?
The 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction is designed to discourage parental child abduction and to "secure the prompt return" of children wrongfully removed or kept away from their home country ('country of habitual residence').

The Convention is based on the belief that it is in the child's best interest to be returned home quickly, and that decisions about the care and welfare of a child are best made in his or her home country. In this way, the abducting parent can also not profit by choosing one legal system over another ('forum shopping'). However, there are some exceptions.

http://www.pact-online.org/html/hague_convention.html