Parental abduction during the course of a case to order the return of a minor under the provisions of the Hague Convention
The issue of parental abduction is a highly complicated topic that generates a lot of negative emotions however, it is increasingly the subject of lawsuits. Parental abduction issues are regulated in detail in the Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, drawn up in The Hague on October 25, 1980.
Recently, our law firm dealt with a case to order the return of minors to their place of permanent residence. Unfortunately, during the trial, the father again committed parental abduction, which led to complications in the entire process.
In the case in which our law firm represented the Applicant – the mother of the minors – the father initially took the children from their place of permanent residence in Ukraine and, without informing the mother, left for Poland. Due to the fact that there is a divorce and parental authority settlement process between the parties in Ukraine, which, due to the ongoing conflict there, is significantly protracted, the mother informed the relevant services about the abduction of the minors, and also filed an application to order their return to their place of permanent residence. Unfortunately, during the course of the process, it turned out that the father, together with the minors has already left the territory of Poland and his whereabouts are currently unknown.
Such situations occur very often. Therefore, below we would like to present to you what should be done in such a situation and how the process of ordering the return of the minors to their place of residence will look like further in such a situation. It is worth pointing out at this point that parental reabduction can take place either after the filing of the application for an order of return or already during the process, which is important in terms of further proceedings in the case.
In a situation where a repeat abduction has taken place after the application has been filed then, according to Article 9 of the Hague Convention, “If the Central Authority which has received an application referred to in Article 8 has reason to believe that the child is in another Contracting State, it shall transmit directly and without delay this application to the Central Authority of that Contracting State, informing the requesting Central Authority or, where appropriate, the applicant.”
On the other hand, according to Article 12 of the Hague Convention, “(…) If the judicial or administrative authority of the requested state has reason to believe that the child has been taken to another state, it may suspend its action or dismiss the request for surrender of the child.”
In connection with the above, it should be pointed out that in a situation where the central authority receiving the application finds that the abducted child is in the territory of another country, in such
a situation it will forward the application to that country, while if during the process it turns out that the minor is in the territory of another country then the court will suspend the proceedings or dismiss the application
If you wish to cooperate with us in the case of ordering the return of a minor to his/her place of residence, we invite you to contact our lawyer Katarzyna, who will be happy to answer all your questions and help you throughout the procedure.
☎ Phone: +48 502 775 164
📥 Email: k.lewicka@lzw-law.com