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At present, the Hague Child Abduction Convention has more than 100 Contracting States. States which were not yet Members of the Hague Conference on Private International Law in 1980 when the Convention was adopted, cannot sign and ratify the Convention with binding effect vis-à-vis all other Contracting States; they may "only" accede. Pursuant to Article 38 subsection 4 of the Convention, the accession only has effect between the acceding State and Contracting States having declared their acceptance of such accession. Therefore it may happen that a State has acceded to the Convention, but the accession has no legal effect in relation to Germany yet. Between Germany and the other State concerned, the Hague Child Abduction Convention does not (yet) apply in such cases. Accordingly, the respective States are not yet mentioned in the List of States. For an up-to-date list of all Contracting States to the Hague Child Abduction Convention please refer to the Status table provided by the Hague Conference on International Private Law.

In child abduction cases between EU Member States the 1980 Hague Child Abduction Convention remains the legal basis for return; the Brussels II b-Regulation however contains some provisions modifying its application in relations between EU Member States.
The Brussels II b-Regulation is directly applicable in all EU Member States with the exception of Denmark, i.e. currently in 27 States (Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Sweden, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and the United Kingdom).

The 1996 Hague Child Protection Convention has more than 50 Contracting States. In relations between EU Member States (with the exception of Denmark), jurisdiction as well as the recognition and enforcement of decisions relating to parental responsibility will however continue to be governed by the so-called Brussels II b-Regulation.

The European Custody Convention currently links Germany with more than 30 other Contracting States. Concerning recognition and/or enforcement of a foreign custody or contact order, in relations between EU Member States, the Brussels II b-Regulation prevails over the European Custody Convention and, thus, remains relevant in relation to States that do not fall within the scope of the Regulation only. In relations with those Non-EU-States and Denmark which are Parties to both the European Custody Convention and the 1996 Hague Child Protection Convention, both Conventions apply. It is therefore up to the applicants to choose which Convention to rely on.

Read more on "International custody matters"