The Hague Child Abduction Convention has enjoyed significant success in responding to the problems associated with international child abductions. The Contracting States extend beyond Europe and into Africa, North and South America and Asia. However, the global protection network for wrongfully removed or retained children, whilst extensive, remains incomplete.
Where abducted children are not habitually resident in a Convention State or are wrongfully removed to or retained in non-Hague Convention States the legal response will vary greatly depending on the jurisdiction seized of the case.
Regional and bilateral arrangements have been concluded which provide general, and in certain instances, very specific remedies following the abduction of a child. In some States there has been an evolution of a highly developed common law response to non-Hague Convention child abduction cases. Furthermore there have been meetings of judges and policy makers at regional and bilateral levels which have led to declarations of good practice and memoranda of understanding with regard to the treatment of non-Hague Convention child abduction cases.
This page provides links to a wide range of instruments, including bilateral arrangements, relevant in the resolution of non-Hague abduction cases as well as information on how summaries of non-Hague abduction cases can be found on INCADAT.