Australian courts to consider family and domestic violence threat in Hague convention cases

Experts say the Hague convention on child abduction across borders can be ‘weaponised’ by abusive ex-partners to stop women fleeing violence. Photograph: AlexLinch/Getty Images/iStockphoto

The federal government has announced reforms designed to stop women who flee domestic violence from being deported back into unsafe situations after a First Nations woman pleaded for help to stop her daughter being returned to Europe under a decades-old international agreement.

The Hague convention on the civil aspects of international child abduction, now more than 40 years old, is designed to stop one parent removing a child from a country without the other parent’s consent.