Each child should be given the opportunity to be heard in all decisions affecting them, including international child abduction cases. Because the outcomes will, to a large extend, influence the life of the children involved. But it often lacks of knowledge or vision about the best interest of the child in cases of cross-border family disputes. These project results focus on giving information to judges, legal professionals and mediators on how to assess the best interest of the child in international child abduction cases.

Research study findings of the factors that influence the wellbeing of children abducted by a parent.

This is a quickscan of all 28 EU Member States on the right of the child to be heard in national legal systems. Information is clustered per country and put to a check with experts in each legal system separately.

This research report has been prepared in the framework of the project Training in International Family Mediation implemented by Child Focus (Belgium) in cooperation with project partners Mediation bei internationalen Kindschaftskonflikten (Mikk e.V.) (Germany), Leuven Institute of Criminology (LINC) in the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (K.U.Leuven) (Belgium) and associate partner Centrum Internationale Kinderontvoering (Netherlands). The project was implemented during two years from 01 July 2010 until 30 June 2012.