The Hague Abduction Convention is an international treaty. The United States is one of the many countries who have joined it.

The Convention aims to protect children from the harmful effects of international parental child abduction. It encourages the prompt return of abducted children to the country where they are habitually resident. It also seeks to organize or secure effective exercise of rights of access to a child. The main idea is that the proper court in the country of the child's habitual residence should generally determine custody and visitation matters. 

The Convention focuses on the child. It provides a shared civil remedy among partner countries. 

I already have a custody order. Why might I need the convention?

• Other countries may not recognize U.S. court orders. 
• Each country is a sovereign nation. Sovereign nations cannot interfere with each other's legal systems, judiciaries, or law enforcement;

The Convention provides a framework for countries to work together in specific ways to resolve international abduction cases.

Important features of the Convention include:

• Each member country must have a Central Authority. The Central Authority is the main point of contact for parents and other governments. In the United States, the Office of Children’s Issues serves as the Central Authority.
• The Central Authority has many responsibilities. They help locate abducted children. They encourage parents to find amicable solutions to abduction cases. And, they help facilitate the safe return of children as appropriate.
• Documents submitted to the Central Authority with an application are admissible in courts without the normal formalities needed to admit documents from foreign countries.
• The Convention allows parents to prove their custodial rights in different ways. A parent can submit a custody order. Or, in some cases, they can submit proof of custodial rights according to the laws of the child's habitual residence. This can include proof of parenthood or marriage.
• The decision about returning a child to their habitual residence, does not depend on the child's immigration status or nationality. It also does not depend on the status or nationality of the child's parents. This also applies to decisions about whether access rights exist

What kinds of cases fall under the Hague Abduction Convention?

Filing a case under the Convention does not guarantee that your child will be returned. To obtain the return of your child, through a Hague proceeding, you must first be able to demonstrate:

• That your child was habitually resident in one Convention country.
• That their removal to or retention in another Convention country was wrongful. Specifically, their removal or retention violated your custody rights.
• That you were exercising, or would have been exercising, your custodial rights but for the removal or retention.

The Convention must have been in force between the two countries when the removal or retention took place. The dates are different for every country. More information about U.S. partner countries is available here. (Note: When a country joins the Convention, it may not automatically partner with the United States. Before a country is considered a partner with the United States, the United States must generally accept their accession.) 

Defenses to the Petition for Return of a Child

Under the Convention, a court may deny return of an abducted child if one of the following defenses apply:

• There is a grave risk that the child’s return would expose the child to physical or psychological harm or otherwise place the child in an intolerable situation;
• When the child objects to being returned. This requires the child reach an age and degree of maturity for the court to take their views into account. 
• The child has become settled in their new environment. This may only apply if the person seeking return files in court one year after the wrongful removal or retention. 
• The person seeking return consented to or later acquiesced to the child's removal or retention.
• The return would violate the fundamental principles of human rights and freedoms in the country where the child is being held.
• The person seeking return was not exercising custodial rights at the time of the removal or retention.

Note: Interpretation of these exceptions varies from country to country.

Access or visitation: When a parent and their child live in two partner countries, the parent may apply to establish or enforce access/visitation rights. Partners to the Convention agree to promote visitation/access rights of parents.

Filing a Hague Application

Parents may file a Hague Application when the child is taken to a country that is a partner with the United States. The abduction or retention must have taken place after the effective date of the partnership. You can see which countries are partners with the United States here.

For abductions FROM the U.S., see our Filing a Hague Application page for more information.