Lawyers Manual - Unified Court System

The Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction1 (“Hague Convention”) is an international treaty that was designed to
address child abduction by a parent. It provides parents with a civil remedy —
the prompt return of their children. The underlying purpose of the Hague
Convention is to prevent international abductions and restore the status quo
while the courts of the country from which the child was taken resolve
underlying custody and visitation issues. Once a prima facie case under the
Hague Convention has been established, the Convention, in most instances,
mandates return of the child.
The drafters of the Hague Convention assumed that abducting parents are
most often non-custodial parents, and the treaty does not contemplate instances
in which women flee with their children to escape domestic violence. The
Convention does, however, provide some exceptions to the return remedy, and,
although very narrowly tailored, these exceptions may be useful when litigating
Hague Convention cases on behalf of abused mothers.
Background
9
Representing Abused Mothers
in Hague Convention Cases
by Betsy Tsai
The Hague Convention was drafted in 1980 by the Hague Conference on
Private International Law. Although the United States signed the treaty in 1981,
the Hague Convention did not become law in the United States until 1988
when the International Child Abduction and Recovery Act (ICARA), 2 its
implementing legislation, was passed. The Hague Convention is only
applicable between and among countries that have ratified the Convention,
otherwise known as Contracting States, or countries that have acceded to it. A