What is the Child Abduction Act 1984?

Modern families often have international connections, for example where they live in the UK but one or both of the parents originates from another country.

These international connections can of course be extremely beneficial for children growing up in such families. However, they also raise the spectre of what can be a parent’s worst nightmare: child abduction.

But just what is child abduction, what are its consequences, and what can you do if your child has been abducted abroad?

The law on child abduction is set out in the Child Abduction Act 1984, as amended.

Explaining the Child Abduction Act 1984

The Act makes it a criminal offence for anyone to take or send a child under the age of 16 out of the UK without the appropriate consent. A person guilty of such an offence could be liable to a term of imprisonment, a fine, or both.

The vital question, therefore, is: what is the ‘appropriate consent’?

The ‘appropriate consent’ essentially means one of two things:

1. The consent of each of: the child’s mother; the child’s father if he has parental responsibility for the child; any guardian of the child; any special guardian of the child; and any person named in a child arrangements order as a person with whom the child is to live.
2. The consent of the court.

There are, however, two exceptions to the above. You do not commit an offence by taking or sending a child out of the UK without obtaining the appropriate consent if either: you are named in a child arrangements order as a person with whom the child is to live and you take or send the child out of the UK for a period of less than one month; or you are a special guardian of the child and you take or send the child out of the UK for a period of less than three months.

Accordingly, if you wish to take your child abroad, do not come under an exception, and cannot obtain the consent of everyone in paragraph 1 above, then you will need to apply for the consent of the court.

In deciding whether to grant consent the court will consider not just the welfare of the child but also such matters as the reason for taking the child abroad, and the effect upon the child of reduced contact with the other parent.

What can you do if your child has been abducted abroad?

The fact that the other parent may have committed a criminal offence under the Act does not of course mean that your child will be returned to this country. What, then, can you do if your child has been abducted abroad?

The answer to this depends upon whether the country to which the child has been taken is contracted to the 1980 Hague Convention on Child Abduction. Most countries are contracted (at the time of writing there were 103 contracting parties).

The Convention essentially works on the basis that any child abducted to another country should normally be returned to their country of origin, where the courts will decide where the child should live.

The Convention therefore provides a mechanism for the quick return of children to their country of origin. If your child has been abducted to a Convention country you should therefore apply under the Convention for their summary return. A return will usually be ordered if the application is made within the first 12 months of the abduction, unless it is considered that it would place the child at grave risk of harm.

If your child was taken to a country that is not contracted to the Convention then there is no similar mechanism available for the return of the child. You will therefore have to take legal proceedings in the country to which the child was taken. Obviously, this may make it considerably more difficult to secure a return.

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