Removal and Retention of Children in Times of War: The Hague Child Abduction Convention and the Case of Ukraine

It seems fair that a parent who has custody of a child who is removed or retained abroad without the parent's consent should be able to have the child returned. However, what if this entails return to a country at war? What if the child has settled down in a new country to such an extent that returning to the country from which he or she was once removed would be highly traumatic? What should happen when the child objects to his or her return? To which state can a child be returned? Does the parental right of return depend on the legis-lative provisions regarding border crossings and whether they stipulate that a child may be taken out of the country without the parent's consent? These and other questions are analysed under the lens of the 1980 Hague Convention on the Abduction of Children, con-sidering in particular the specific example of Ukrainian children who, after the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, were taken to the territory of states that are party to the Convention.