Nurturing the 1980 Hague Abduction Convention

Contemporary Nurturing of the 1980 Hague Convention

“…These are issues that must be addressed by the international child abduction community working together to support and nurture the Convention. We have already argued elsewhere that, in furtherance of the aim of working collectively to support and nurture the Convention, and in light of the Eighth Special Commission being held in October 2023, we consider it timely to suggest that the themes and issues identified in this article, together with others who represent specialist current thinking about international child abduction and the operation of the Convention, should form the basis of further work to be undertaken, or commissioned, by the HCCH in one of the various ways available to them (Freeman and Taylor 2023a). This would be a pragmatic and progressive means of facilitating the much-needed deliberation by the international community on the gaps and challenges in the Convention's operation and how best to address them.…”

“…Many societal changes impact international child abduction and the operation of the Convention, including those relating to fiscal pressures in the provision of key services in global economies. For example, we have recently addressed the Convention's uneven playing field internationally, part of which arises due to the variability across Contracting Parties in the availability of public funding for legal representation in applications made under the Convention (Freeman and Taylor 2023a). This resourcing issue and other critical societal changes-including the growing awareness of domestic violence against women globally and the greater respect accorded to children's right to express their views in legal and judicial proceedingsimpact materially on the field of international child abduction and the operation of the Convention.…”

“…The Convention's operation currently evolves through the ways that the many jurisdictions interpret, apply, or operationalise it based on their own needs, requirements, and resources. This does, however, lead to differences emerging between Contracting Parties globally (Freeman and Taylor 2023b). To some extent, differing interpretations and implementations of the Convention's provisions are inevitable given the level of diversity between the social and economic demographics of the countries involved (Henaghan et al 2023).…”

“…Domestic violence and child participation, as we have argued in this article, are two such issues on which change is urgently needed in the approach of the Convention's Contracting Parties to help ensure the Convention's operation evolves appropriately in response to identified global trends. There are, of course, several other important concerns regarding the Convention's operation that also need to be addressed in a similarly purposive way (Freeman and Taylor 2023b).…”

Concurrent Convention and Non-Convention Cases: Child Abduction in England and Wales

“…There are also serious challenges, though. One view is that a parent whose child has been wrongfully removed or retained should be able to deploy any remedy available to them as swiftly as possible, noting the long-term harms caused to children by child abduction (Freeman 2006(Freeman , 2014. Against that, as we identify in this article, there are significant challenges that arise from the concurrent approach.…”