International Child Abduction

To meet the International Treaty obligations, the Netherlands has established a process for incoming and outgoing cases of international child abduction. The procedure for incoming

cases has recently changed. Are the recent changes being carried out as intended? And how do the Dutch compare to other countries with a similar system?

What is international child abduction?

We speak of international child abduction when a parent transfers a child to another country or keeps the child in a country without the other parent’s consent. Cases in which parents face each other head on are very emotionally charged and often attract media and political attention. A tough choice has to be made: a child either stays in the Netherlands or moves to another country.
We distinguish between incoming and outgoing international child abduction cases. With an incoming case a child is abducted by one of the parents and taken to the Netherlands. With outgoing cases the child is abducted by one of the parents and taken from the Netherlands to another country.

Process evaluation

The procedure for incoming cases has recently changed. DSP-groep was asked by the University of Utrecht to help evaluate the practical application of the Dutch procedure for incoming cases of international child abduction and to compare this with similar systems abroad (in England, Sweden, Switzerland and Wales).

Key questions

Are the recent changes being carried out as intended? How does the Dutch system compare to that of other countries with a similar system?
We will involve all parties concerned – what is their take on the new procedure? And what are the possible bottlenecks?

Collaboration Utrecht University and DSP-groep

The WODC (department of the Ministry of Safety and Justice) commissioned UCERF (Utrecht University) and DSP-groep to work together on this international project.