HAGUE CONVENTION AND INTERNATIONAL CHILD ABDUCTION AND ILLEGAL RETENTION

Visit us at Oplawyers.org
Hi, it’s Mac Pierre-louis, houston attorney and mediator. The topic in this video is the international treaty known as the hague convention on the civil aspects of international child abduction. This hague convention is an international treaty in which about 100 member countries sign and agree to partner together and follow a set of rules on how to return children back to their home countries, when those children are allegedly abducted from the home country or illegally retained in the other country.
Countries such as the United States, Canada, Mexico, the European countries, most of Latin america, now accept this hague convention treaty and those countries do what they can to help find a child and return that child to their home country, also known as the place of “habitual residence”
Houston, being a large and diverse international city, has a high number of family law court cases where children living in Houston become the subject of international custody fights started by parents living in foreign countries trying to get their child to be returned home.
“Inbound” hague cases like this Houston example, typically begin when one parent living in a foreign Hague country files a hague application through their countries’ Central Authority office, requesting help for the U.S. state department and local lawyer to help track down a child and facilitate the child’s return back to the child's home country.
“Outbound” hague cases such as where a US child is taken to a Hague country works in reverse where the US parent submits a hague application to the US state department for submission foreign countries central authority office so that office can facilitate the return of the child. It may be helpful to have a local attorney on the ground in the foreign country to help return the child.
There are plenty of countries known as non-hague convention countries, such as many countries in Africa and Asia. For example, parents of children from Nigeria, India, or mainland China may not get the benefit of the Hague convention treaty, because those counties have not yet approved the treaty. It may prove really difficult for a US parent to get their child back home to the states from a non hague country. Parents of children who may be taken to a non-hague country should be sure they have a custody order that addresses international travel to such countries.
I’ll be posting more news and information on this hague topic in the future. Return back to learn more. Please subscribe to this channel if you found this information helpful.