Stop child abductions

WHO CAN SUBMIT AN APPLICATION FOR RETURN OF A CHILD?

Anyone who:

• meets ONE of the following conditions:
  1. is the parent of the abducted child and has joint decision-making rights concerning the child’s habitual residence,
  2. is the legal guardian of the abducted child (i.e. the person to whom the court has granted custody of the child).

• has a child who meets ALL of the following conditions:
  1. is under 16 years old,
  2. resided permanently in a country covered by the Hague Convention (State Parties to the Convention can be found in the KNOWLEDGE BASE tab – LIST OF STATES WITH WHICH POLAND IS BOUND BY THE HAGUE CONVENTION)
  3. has been abducted or retained in a country covered by the Hague Convention other than that of the child’s habitual residence.

An application may also be submitted by persons who do not know the child’s exact whereabouts but can make reasonable assumptions in this regard.

The Hague Convention only applies to international abductions and retention. If your child has been abducted in the country where he or she has their place of habitual residence you cannot receive assistance under the Convention.

 

SUBMISSION OF THE APPLICATION:

The Convention provides for two ways of submitting applications. The person concerned may apply to the Polish central authority, i.e. the Ministry of Justice, or directly to the relevant central authority of the State where the child is currently (Article 8(1), Article 21(1) of the Convention).

An application for the return of a child or for the exercise of right of access should be made according to the templates that can be found in the FORMS AND APPLICATION TEMPLATES tab.

All fields should be filled in exhaustively.

 

IMPORTANT! The forms are available in two formats: interactive and traditional.

The traditional format of the application is available for downloading and filling in manually (PDF) or in an editable format (WORD).

The interactive form should be completed and sent in online, and also printed off, signed, and then posted with the required attachments to the address of the Ministry of Justice (contact details are in the CONTACT tab).

As a rule, the costs of translating the application and attached documents are borne by the applicant.

If you have any doubts about how to prepare an application for the return of a child following international abduction or for access, including doubts about attaching the necessary documents, we recommend reading the specially prepared Brochure (available for download below in the MATERIALS TO DOWNLOAD section).

You can also contact your local regional court or the Ministry of Justice – the Office of International Family Proceedings at the Department of Family and Juvenile Matters directly (contact details can be found in the CONTACT section).

Please note that the posted content and the brochure do not constitute legal advice, but are information on the possible ways of initiating proceedings, the course and outcome of which are decided only by the competent court.

In order to obtain legal advice, we consider contacting a professional legal representative or using a free legal aid point (a search engine for locating the points nearest to the place of residence of the person concerned can be found at: https://np.ms.gov.pl/ or checking the FORMS AND APPLICATION TEMPLATES tab, where information on legal aid is available (including in other countries).