FD25P00160 - [2025] EWHC 1176 (Fam)

Legal Framework

Article 1 of the 1980 Hague Convention sets out the purpose of the Convention:

“To protect children internationally from the harmful effects of their wrongful removal or retention and to establish procedures to ensure their prompt return to the State of their habitual residence, as well as to secure protection for rights of access”.

The underlying philosophy is that the wrongful removal or retention of a child is prejudicial to his or her welfare, and that, save for the limited exceptions provided for, it will be in their best interests to return to the state of habitual residence, and for the courts of that state to determine the merits of a dispute as to their future arrangements.

In B v B [2014] EWHC 1804, Mostyn J described the specific purpose and limited operation of the Convention, stating that there are very few exceptions, and the exceptions that do exist have to be interpreted very narrowly in order that the central premise of the Convention is not fatally undermined. He stated:

“All the Convention provides is that the child should be returned for the specific purpose and limited period to enable the court of her homeland to decide on her long-term future. That is all it decides”.