International child abduction in Aotearoa New Zealand, Australia and the Pacific: Similarities and differences

Aotearoa New Zealand, Australia and Fiji are the only signatories to the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction in the Australasia/Pacific region. Nonetheless, each of the three jurisdictions has adopted a different philosophy when handling cases of international child abduction. This chapter compares each country’s approach to key aspects of the Convention, including the ‘rights of custody’ threshold, the definition of habitual residence and some common exceptions to refuse a child’s return under the Convention. These include when the child has become settled in their new environment, when returning the child exposes them to a grave risk of harm or an intolerable situation, or when the child objects to the return and is of an appropriate age and degree of maturity. Finally, the chapter provides an overview of the jurisprudence in some non-signatory Pacific countries, including Samoa, Tonga, Papua New Guinea and the Cook Islands. The trend is to move away from rigid application of the Convention to a greater focus on the welfare of the child, particularly in cases involving domestic violence.