Cross-border child abduction refers to the wrongful removal or retention of a child from his or her place of habitual residence in violation of actually exercised rights of custody. The return of children who have been abducted is regulated by the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction of 25 October 1980 (“Hague Convention”) and, with regard to EU Member States, by the successive “Brussels II” Regulations.
In EU law, cross-border child abduction proceedings also engage the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (“the Charter”), in particular the child’s best interests (Article 24) and the right to respect for private and family life (Article 7), as reflected in the case-law of the Court of Justice of the EU (“CJEU”). The ECtHR’s case-law specifies the obligations that the Convention imposes on States when complying with their obligations stemming from these instruments, as well as from the Convention on the Rights of the Child of 20 November 1989 (“Convention on the Rights of the Child”).