Europees Verdrag betreffende de erkenning en de tenuitvoerlegging van beslissingen inzake het gezag over kinderen en betreffende het herstel van het gezag over kinderen
Europees Verdrag betreffende de erkenning en de tenuitvoerlegging van beslissingen inzake het gezag over kinderen en betreffende het herstel van het gezag over kinderen
Opschrift
European Convention on recognition and enforcement of decisions concerning custody of children and on restoration of custody of children
Preambule
The member States of the Council of Europe, signatory hereto,
Recognising that in the member States of the Council of Europe the welfare of the child is of overriding importance in reaching decisions concerning his custody;
Considering that the making of arrangements to ensure that decisions concerning the custody of a child can be more widely recognised and enforced will provide greater protection of the welfare of children;
Considering it desirable, with this end in view, to emphasise that the right of access of parents is a normal corollary to the right of custody;
Noting the increasing number of cases where children have been improperly removed across an international frontier and the difficulties of securing adequate solutions to the problems caused by such cases;
Desirous of making suitable provision to enable the custody of children which has been arbitrarily interrupted to be restored;
Convinced of the desirability of making arrangements for this purpose answering to different needs and different circumstances;
Desiring to establish legal co-operation between their authorities,
Have agreed as follows:
Article 1
For the purposes of this Convention:
child means a person of any nationality, so long as he is under 16 years of age and has not the right to decide on his own place of residence under the law of his habitual residence, the law of his nationality or the internal law of the State addressed;
authority means a judicial or administrative authority;
decision relating to custody means a decision of an authority in so far as it relates to the care of the person of the child, including the right to decide on the place of his residence, or to the right of access to him;
improper removal means the removal of a child across an international frontier in breach of a decision relating to his custody which has been given in a Contracting State and which is enforceable in such a State; improper removal also includes:
the failure to return a child across an international frontier at the end of a period of the exercise of the right of access to this child or at the end of any other temporary stay in a territory other than that where the custody is exercised;
a removal which is subsequently declared unlawful within the meaning of Article 12.