High Court of Justice (England and Wales), Family Division

High Court of Justice (England and Wales), Family Division

United Kingdom - England and Wales

25 February 2025

Re V (A Child) (Abduction: Return following Interim Removal from Taking Parent)

[2025] EWHC 323 (Fam)

First instance

Article 16

• Article 5
• Article 7

Children Act 1989, Child Abduction and Custody Act 1985

Not provided

The case concerned a nine-year-old Ukrainian child who had been living with her father in the Netherlands since 2023. In September 2024, the mother removed the child from the Netherlands without the father's consent, first taking her to France, then Ukraine, and ultimately England. The father sought the child's return under the 1980 Hague Child Abduction Convention. The court found that the child was habitually resident in the Netherlands at the time of removal and that the father possessed and was exercising rights of custody. In analysing those rights, the court relied on Article 16 of the 1996 Hague Child Protection Convention, holding that parental responsibility acquired under Ukrainian law continued notwithstanding changes in the child's habitual residence. The court concluded that the removal was wrongful, that no defence under Article 13 was established, and that the child should be returned to the Netherlands. The judgment further observed that any future welfare disputes should be determined by the Dutch courts as the courts of the child's habitual residence.

The court ordered the return of the child to the Netherlands under the 1980 Hague Child Abduction Convention. The court found that the child had been wrongfully removed from the Netherlands by the mother and that none of the exceptions under Article 13 of the 1980 Convention were established. In reaching that conclusion, the court held that the father retained parental responsibility under Article 16(3) of the 1996 Hague Child Protection Convention and noted that the Netherlands, as the child's habitual residence immediately before the removal, had primary jurisdiction under Articles 5 and 7 of the 1996 Convention.