Cross-border child abduction  ECtHR and CJEU Case-Law - Joint factsheet - Cover
30
June
2026

Cross-border child abduction ECtHR and CJEU Case-Law - Joint Factsheet

This factsheet examines case law on cross-border child abduction, meaning the unlawful removal of a child from one EU Member State to another. Jointly published by the European Court of Human Rights and the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights, it explains how courts handle issues where EU law and human rights law overlap. It highlights key court decisions from the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) and the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) to show how these two legal systems work together on issues of child abduction and prioritising the best interests of the child.
Overview

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”).