Child Abduction

A child cannot be taken out of New Zealand without the consent of both their guardians. If this occurs, it is called Child Abduction.

How can you prevent a child being taken out of New Zealand?

If you think your child’s other parent or some other person is about to take the child out of New Zealand, and you have not given your permission or this is in breach of a parenting order, you can ask the Family Court to stop this.

The Court can order the police or a social worker to place the child with a suitable person until the Court can deal with the case further. This is often called an order preventing removal.

It is important that you apply to the Court quickly. Once your child leaves New Zealand, they become subject to the laws of other countries or to international laws.

Making an application to the Court

We can do this urgently. You need to be able to tell the Court why you believe the child is about to be removed. For example, because the other parent has said they will take the child with them when they go to live overseas.

How long will it take for the Court to make an order?

If your case is urgent, you can seek for your case to be heard and an order made on the same day. In this case, you can apply without telling the other person. This is called a ‘without notice application’.

Less urgent matters are dealt with after giving notice to the other party.

The Hague Convention

The Hague Convention on the civil aspects of child abduction is an international Treaty between about 68 countries. New Zealand is a signatory to the Convention as are most of our trading partners. However, some other countries, including many of the Pacific Islands are not part of the Convention. The Convention aims to ensure that children who are abducted or wrongfully retained by a parent, will be returned as quickly as possible to the country in which they habitually reside, so that issues of parental responsibility can be resolved by the Courts in that country.

Basic principles of the Convention include:

• The rights of the child are the primary consideration
• Custody of the child (which includes day-to-day care) should be determined in the country where the child usually lives
• Children should not be taken or kept overseas without the prior agreement of other people who are entitled by law to give their consent. In most cases, this will be the parent(s) but may be other family members. While you may have a parenting order or custody of a child, you still need to consult with other people who may have rights with regards to the child. If these people refuse to consent, the correct procedure would be to seek the consent of the Court in New Zealand before the child is taken overseas.

If a child is abducted from New Zealand, the child is returned to New Zealand so that issues of parental responsibility can be resolved by the Family Court. If a child is wrongfully retained in New Zealand, the child is returned to their country of habitual residence.

The Hague Convention assumes that the Courts in the child’s country of habitual residence are best able to make decisions about the best interests of the child.

The Convention sets up a Central Authority in each country to deal with applications for the return of children taken to or from each country. The Chief Executive of the Ministry of Justice is the Central Authority for New Zealand.

Applications made under the Hague Convention take months to resolve. We have expertise in Hague Convention cases. In some, but not all cases, legal aid is available. Please contact us to make an appointment and we can advise the best way to proceed.