Domestic violence in international child abduction proceedings under The Hague Convention - Case study
Domestic violence in international child abduction proceedings under The Hague Convention - Case study

Summary/Abstract: The international abduction of a minor by a member of his or her own family, generally by one of his or her parents, raises complex challenges, both legal, moral and psychological. Today's society, in which the rate of cross-border mobility is extremely high, which inherently leads to a higher incidence of mixed marriages, unfortunately also faces situations in which mixed couples no longer find the harmony necessary to continue their personal relationship, which leads to separations or divorces as the case may be, a context in which the provisions regarding the protection of their minor children, their habitual residence, the custody rights of the parents and the rights of personal ties between parents and their minor children with whom they do not habitually live become incidents. Under the pretext of safety or other personal advantage, one of the parents decides to unilaterally and most often, without the knowledge of the other parent, move the minor's habitual residence to a state other than the one in which the residence is declared or established, in violation of the custody and/or visitation rights of the other parent, a situation legally designated as international child abduction, a phenomenon that has become extremely widespread. In response to the increasing incidence of such cases, in the late 1980s, the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction was adopted as a procedural instrument of cross-border jurisdiction applicable in such special situations. The present study aims, based on a case study, to highlight the importance of this instrument in exceptional situations referred to in cases of domestic violence. The analysis will be carried out starting from the legal theory on the basis of which the Convention was adopted, the international relations to which it applies and the guiding principles, in order to understand the objectives and fundamental implications of its application, underlining the importance that the Hague Convention, as an instrument, has in combating the phenomenon of domestic violence.

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