Family Law

VICTORIA DAMRELL, International Child Abduction and Contact Unit

This is the exclamation the International Child Abduction and Contact Unit (ICACU) often hears when we have to inform a parent that their contact order is not enforceable outside the EU. The right of contact (or access) between a parent and child who live in different countries is promoted by a number of international instruments - the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction 1980 (the 1980 Hague Convention), Council Regulation (EC) No 2201/2003 (Brussels II Revised) and the European Convention on Recognition and Enforcement of Decisions Concerning Custody of Children and on Restoration of Custody of Children (the European Convention). ICACU discharges the Lord Chancellor's operational duties as Central Authority for England and Wales under these instruments.

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