What is the Hague Convention on Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction?
It is a treaty among many nations that operates to return a child to his or her home country when one parent takes the child to another country unilaterally. If a nation is a signatory to the Hague Convention, the court applies the provisions of the Convention to determine whether the child is to be returned to the home country, or whether there is a basis to allow the child to stay. For example, the court will allow the child to stay (and not to return to home) if home poses a grave risk of danger to the child, if doing so violates fundamental principles of human rights or if the home parent is found to have acquiesced to the child’s departure.
