Decision-making

Under the provisions of the Convention, the procedure for these requests is urgent. However, given the complexity of the issues addressed by the Convention, the possibility of seeking legal remedies, and the different legal systems and various forms of internal organisation of the States Parties to the Convention, the procedure itself may take a relatively long time.

The Convention also provides for the possibility that the competent court may make a decision refusing the request for the return of an unlawfully removed or retained child.

The decision on the return or contact with the child is taken by the court with both subject-matter and territorial jurisdiction in the State where the child is located. Against the first-instance decision on the (non-)return or the granting of contact with the child, all legal remedies provided for by the domestic legislation of the contracting State may be pursued.