The European Convention on Recognition and Enforcement of Decisions concerning Custody of Children and on Restoration of Custody of Children was opened for signature in Luxembourg on 20 May 1980 as European Treaty No. 105. It is not the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, concluded the same year, on 25 October. The authentic texts are English and French, in a single copy deposited in the archives of the Council of Europe. The Secretary General transmits certified copies. For the Convention, a “child” means a person under 16 who does not have the right to decide on his or her own place of residence; a “decision relating to custody” covers care of the person, the place of residence and the right of access.

The preamble places the welfare of the child first, links wider recognition of custody decisions to the protection of children, and treats a parent’s right of access as a normal corollary of custody. It notes the increasing number of cases of improper removal across an international frontier and seeks to restore custody that has been arbitrarily interrupted, through legal co-operation between authorities. No removal or recovery protocol is transcribed.

Article 2 requires each Contracting State to appoint a central authority; federal States may appoint more than one. Article 7: a decision relating to custody given in a Contracting State shall be recognised and, where it is enforceable in the State of origin, made enforceable in every other Contracting State. Article 11 applies the same conditions to rights of access, with the addressed authority able to fix the conditions for their exercise. Grounds of refusal remain at the level of principle (Articles 9 and 10); they are not turned into a procedural handbook.

Article 21: open for signature by the member States of the Council of Europe; instruments of ratification, acceptance or approval are deposited with the Secretary General. Article 22: it enters into force on the first day of the month following the expiration of three months after three member States have expressed their consent to be bound. The Treaty Office records 1 September 1983. Article 23 allows non-member States to accede, at the invitation of the Committee of Ministers. From 2005 the Brussels II bis Regulation largely superseded the Convention between EU States; it remains relevant vis-à-vis non-members.

Cover: the Grand Ducal Palace in Luxembourg, the capital of the place of signature; we do not claim the hall and we do not use photographs of children. Wikimedia Commons, free licence.

Sources consulted: European Convention on Recognition and Enforcement of Decisions concerning Custody of Children and on Restoration of Custody of Children; European Convention on Recognition and Enforcement of Decisions concerning Custody of Children (ETS No. 105).