The implementation of the Istanbul Convention in the recasting of the Brussels II Bis Regulation and its impact on the international child abduction

Abstract

Abstract: International instruments with regards to international child abduction do not present satisfactory answers to the gender based violence situations. This highlights the failure of its mechanisms. The Recasting Text of the Regulation (CE) 2201/2003 is being currently revised in the EU, and a special attention is drawn to the issues related to child abduction by one of the parents. Moreover, despite the myriad of rules and measures existing in the fieldof fightagainst gender based violence and despite the adhesion of the EU to the Istanbul Convention to prevent and fightviolence against women, the imple-mentation coveted for in the international instruments on international child abduction is not achieved. We will analyze, particularly in the intra-European situations, the “safe return” of children exposed to high risks in contexts of domestic violence/Gender based violence (GBV), as a general rule established by the current article 11.4 of the Brussels II Bis Regulation. In this paper, we will propose solutions to a return accompanied by security measures in light of the Spanish Legal system, taking into account the existence of European instruments of mutual recognition of penal decisions in the EU such as the European Protection Order.