Re G (A Minor) (Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction: Access)
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judgment Date | 09 December 1993 |
| Date | 09 December 1993 |
| Court | Court of Appeal (Civil Division) |
Court of Appeal
Before Sir Thomas Bingham, Master of the Rolls, Lord Justice Butler-Sloss and Lord Justice Hoffmann
Children - access rights - granted by foreign court - application of Abduction Convention
A child who was habitually resident with her mother in England and whose father had access rights granted by the Ontario court, was a child to whom the Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction applied.
Article 21 of that Convention provides: "An application to make arrangements for organising or securing the effective exercise of rights of access may be presented to the central authorities of the contracting states in the same way as an application for the return of the child. The central authorities are bound by the obligations of co-operation … to promote the peaceful enjoyment of access rights and the fulfilment of any conditions to which the exercise of those rights may be subject…"
"The central authorities shall take steps to remove, as far as is possible, all obstacles to the exercise of such rights. (They), either directly or through intermediaries, may initiate or assist in the institution of proceedings with a view to organising or protecting these rights and securing respect for the conditions to which the exercise of these rights may be subject."
However, any breach of such access rights would be considered by the English court under its domestic law.
Article 21 of the Convention, which had administrative effect but imposed no direct obligation on judicial authorities, required the Lord Chancellor's Department, as the central authority for the purposes of the Convention, to assist the father by introduction to local legal services and where necessary by the provision of legal aid.
The Court of Appeal so stated dismissing an appeal by the father from Mr Justice Cazalet who had (i) held that although weight should be given to a consent order made by Judge Nevins in the Ontario Court, Provincial Division sitting in Toronto, the English court should have regard to the welfare of the child and (ii) ordered specific access arrangements to the father initially to take place in England.
G's parents who had married in England in 1985 had subsequently lived in Canada where G was born in 1989. Following the break up of their marriage the judge in Canadian proceedings...
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