The Hague Conference on Private International Law develops multilateral legal instruments, enforceable between signatory countries, which respond to global needs stemming from personal, family and commercial situations. These legal instruments account for the increase in dealings between countries and the differences between their national laws. They offer uniform sets of laws which the countries may then apply, thus affording them a high degree of international legal security.
One such legal instrument is the Hague Conventions on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction(hereinafter referred to as the Hague Convention).
On October the 25th 1980 the Hague Conference on Private International Law concluded it’s discussions and adopted the Hague Convention which entered into force on December 1st 1983.
As of June 2010 the following countries are signatories (i.e., participants):
- Albania
- Argentina
- Armenia
- Australia
- Austria
- Bahamas
- Belarus
- Belgium
- Belize
- Bosnia and Herzigovina
- Brazil
- Bulgaria
- Burkina Faso
- Canada
- Chile
- China, People’s Republic of
- Colombia
- Costa Rica
- Croatia
- Cyprus
- Czech Republic
- Denmark
- Dominican Republic
- Ecuador
- El Salvador
- Estonia
- Fiji
- Finland
- France
- Georgia
- Germany
- Greece
- Guatemala
- Honduras
- Hungary
- Iceland
- Ireland
- Israel
- Italy
- Latvia
- Lithuania
- Luxembourg
- Malta
- Mauritius
- Mexico
- Moldova, republic of
- Monaco
- Montenegro
- Morocco
- Netherlands
- New Zealand
- Nicaragua
- Norway
- Panama
- Paraguay
- Peru
- Poland
- Portugal
- Romania
- Saint Kitts and Nevis
- San Marino
- Serbia
- Seychelles
- Slovakia
- Slovenia
- South Africa
- Spain
- Sri Lanka
- Sweden
- Switzerland
- Thailand
- The former Yugoslav Republic of
- Macedonia
- Trinidad and Tobago
- Turkey
- Turkmenistan
- Ukraine
- United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
- United States of America
- Uruguay
- Uzbekistan
- Venezuela
- Zimbabwe
The Hague Convention is one of the most widely ratified conventions that provides an expeditious method to return a child taken from one member nation to another. Most often cases implementing this convention involve separated or divorced parents of children who, through the abduction of their child, violate a custody or access order.