Opinion ID: 76527
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Purpose of the Hague Convention

Text: 56 The Hague Convention was created in 1980 with the stated purpose to protect children internationally from the harmful effects of their wrongful removal or retention and to establish procedures to ensure their prompt return to the State of their habitual residence, as well as to secure protection for rights of access. Convention, intro. The Hague Convention specifies that its objects are: a) to secure the prompt return of children wrongfully removed to or retained in any Contracting State; and b) to ensure that rights of custody and of access under the law of one Contracting State are effectively respected in the other Contracting States. Convention, Art. 1. 57 To effect these general goals, Articles 3, 5, 12, and 13 of the Hague Convention together establish the remedy of return of a child to his or her country of habitual residence and set forth the circumstances under which the return remedy is available. Convention, Arts. 3, 5, 12, 13. The Convention is designed to restore the pre-abduction status quo and to deter parents from crossing international borders in search of a more sympathetic forum. Lops, 140 F.3d at 936 (citing Friedrich v. Friedrich, 78 F.3d 1060, 1064 (6th Cir. 1996)).