Mandeep Gill: An overview of the 1980 Hague Convention (child abduction Convention)

The United Kingdom and over 80 countries have both signed and ratified an international treaty called the Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction concluded on 25 October 1980 (colloquially known as the "Hague Convention"). The purpose of the Convention was to ensure the prompt return of children who had been either abducted from their country of habitual residence or wrongfully retained in another contracting state. The Hague Convention works on the principle of returning children aged under 16 years who are wrongfully removed or retained away from their country of habitual residence. The child's nationality is not relevant in these proceedings the key is the child's country of habitual residence and one parent cannot unilaterally change a child's place of habitual residence when the law of the child's habitual residence requires such decisions to be made jointly by both parents. At the time that the Convention was drafted it was felt that parents were taking the law in to their own...

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