Cour de cassation, Première chambre civile (France)

Cour de cassation, Première chambre civile (France)

France

10 July 2024

Mme [O] v M. [S]

No 23-19.042; ECLI:FR:CCASS:2024:C100527

Supreme / Highest Court

• Article 7
• Article 50

Article 5(1)

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The parties and their two children lived in India until July 2022, when the father relocated with the children to France and remained there without the mother's consent. The mother sought an order requiring the children's return to India, relying on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the 1996 Hague Child Protection Convention. The Cour de cassation held that Articles 4 and 11 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child are not directly applicable in French domestic law and cannot provide a legal basis for a return order. The court further held that Articles 7 and 50 of the 1996 Hague Child Protection Convention, which regulate jurisdiction in cases of wrongful removal and the relationship between the 1996 and 1980 Hague Conventions, apply only between Contracting States. As India is not a Contracting State, those provisions could not be relied upon to obtain the children's return. The appeal was therefore dismissed.

The Cour de cassation dismissed the mother's appeal and upheld the refusal to order the return of the children to India. The court held that Articles 7 and 50 of the 1996 Hague Child Protection Convention apply only between Contracting States and therefore could not be invoked in support of a return application to India, which is not a Contracting State.

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