What is the Hague Convention? | Friendship Heights Lawyer

Video Overview

The Hague Convention, in the family law context, refers to the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. It is essentially a treaty or agreement between different countries that outlines what will happen if one parent either illegally retains a child in a foreign country or the United States, or illegally removes a child to or from the United States.

In the U.S., there is a separate statute in addition to the treaty called the International Child Abduction Remedies Act, which provides a mechanism to return the child to their home country or to provide the left-behind parent in another country access to the child while they are located in the U.S.