Federal Act on International Child Abduction and the Hague Conventions on the Protection of Children and Adults

¹The Fed­er­al Of­fice of Justice ("the Of­fice") is the fed­er­al cent­ral au­thor­ity in charge of im­ple­ment­ing the con­ven­tions lis­ted in the pre­amble.

²The Of­fice shall per­form the tasks set out in the 1980 Hag­ue Con­ven­tion and the 1980 European Con­ven­tion.

³Un­der the 1996 and 2000 Hag­ue Con­ven­tions, the Of­fice's tasks shall be:

a.

to trans­mit com­mu­nic­a­tions from abroad to the can­ton­al cent­ral au­thor­ity;

b.

to provide in­form­a­tion on Swiss law and child pro­tec­tion ser­vices in Switzer­land to for­eign au­thor­it­ies;

c.

to rep­res­ent Switzer­land be­fore cent­ral au­thor­it­ies in oth­er coun­tries;

d.

to ad­vise the can­ton­al cent­ral au­thor­it­ies on these con­ven­tions and to en­sure their ap­plic­a­tion;

e.

to pro­mote co­oper­a­tion between can­ton­al cent­ral au­thor­it­ies, co­oper­a­tion with ex­perts and in­sti­tu­tions un­der Art­icle 3 and with the cent­ral au­thor­it­ies of Con­tract­ing States.

¹Each can­ton shall des­ig­nate a cent­ral au­thor­ity re­spons­ible for im­ple­ment­a­tion of the 1996 and 2000 Hag­ue Con­ven­tions.

²Un­less Art­icle 1 para­graph 3 stip­u­lates oth­er­wise, the can­ton­al cent­ral au­thor­it­ies are re­spons­ible for the tasks giv­en to cent­ral au­thor­it­ies by the Con­ven­tions.

³The can­ton­al cent­ral au­thor­it­ies or oth­er au­thor­it­ies des­ig­nated by the can­tons shall on re­quest is­sue the cer­ti­fic­ates provided for in Art­icle 40 para­graph 3 of the 1996 Hag­ue Con­ven­tion and in Art­icle 38 para­graph 3 of the 2000 Hag­ue Con­ven­tion.

¹The fed­er­al cent­ral au­thor­ity shall, in co­oper­a­tion with the can­tons, see to the es­tab­lish­ment of a net­work of ex­perts and in­sti­tu­tions that are in a po­s­i­tion to provide ad­vice, to carry out con­cili­ation or me­di­ation, to rep­res­ent in­di­vidu­al chil­dren, and that are cap­able of act­ing ex­ped­i­tiously.

²The fed­er­al cent­ral au­thor­ity may en­trust the tasks men­tioned in para­graph 1 to a private body, which it may pay by re­im­burs­ing the ex­penses in­curred or at a fixed rate.

¹The cent­ral au­thor­ity may ini­ti­ate a con­cili­ation or me­di­ation pro­ced­ure in or­der to ob­tain the vol­un­tary re­turn of the child or to fa­cil­it­ate an am­ic­able res­ol­u­tion.

²The cent­ral au­thor­ity shall, in an ap­pro­pri­ate man­ner, en­cour­age the per­sons con­cerned to par­ti­cip­ate in the con­cili­ation or me­di­ation pro­ced­ure.

Un­der Art­icle 13 para­graph 1 let­ter b of the 1980 Hag­ue Con­ven­tion, the re­turn of a child places him or her in an in­tol­er­able situ­ation where:

a.

place­ment with the par­ent who filed the ap­plic­a­tion is mani­festly not in the child's best in­terests;

b.

the ab­duct­ing par­ent is not, giv­en all the cir­cum­stances, in a po­s­i­tion to take care of the child in the State where the child was ha­bitu­ally res­id­ent im­me­di­ately be­fore the ab­duc­tion or this can­not reas­on­ably be re­quired from this par­ent; and

c.

place­ment in foster care is mani­festly not in the child's best in­terests.

¹The court deal­ing with the ap­plic­a­tion for the re­turn of the child shall de­cide, as re­quired, on the child's per­son­al re­la­tions with his or her par­ents and or­der the meas­ures ne­ces­sary to en­sure his or her pro­tec­tion.

²Where the ap­plic­a­tion for re­turn has been re­ceived by the cent­ral au­thor­ity, the com­pet­ent court may at the re­quest of the cent­ral au­thor­ity or any of the parties or­der the ap­point­ment of a rep­res­ent­at­ive for the child, the ap­point­ment of a guard­i­an, or oth­er pro­tect­ive meas­ures even if the ap­plic­a­tion for re­turn has not yet been re­ceived by the court.

¹The su­preme court of the can­ton where a child is res­id­ent at the mo­ment when the ap­plic­a­tion for re­turn is lodged is the sole court com­pet­ent to deal with ap­plic­a­tions for re­turn, in­clud­ing pro­tect­ive meas­ures.

²The court may trans­fer the case to the su­preme court of an­oth­er can­ton if the parties and the court in ques­tion con­sent.

¹The court shall ini­ti­ate con­cili­ation or me­di­ation pro­ced­ures with a view to ob­tain­ing the vol­un­tary re­turn of the child or to achiev­ing an am­ic­able res­ol­u­tion if the cent­ral au­thor­ity has not already done so.

²When con­cili­ation or me­di­ation does not res­ult in an agree­ment lead­ing to the with­draw­al of the ap­plic­a­tion for re­turn, the court shall de­cide us­ing a sum­mary pro­ced­ure.

³The court shall in­form the cent­ral au­thor­ity of the es­sen­tial steps in the pro­ced­ure.

¹As far as pos­sible, the court shall hear the parties in per­son.

²The court shall hear the child in an ap­pro­pri­ate man­ner or ap­point an ex­pert to carry out this hear­ing un­less the age of the child or an­oth­er val­id reas­on pre­vents this.

³The court shall or­der that the child be rep­res­en­ted and des­ig­nate as a rep­res­ent­at­ive a per­son ex­per­i­enced in wel­fare and leg­al mat­ters. This per­son may file ap­plic­a­tions and lodge ap­peals.

¹The court shall co­oper­ate as re­quired with the au­thor­it­ies of the state in which the child had his or her ha­bitu­al res­id­ence be­fore ab­duc­tion.

²The court, if ne­ces­sary with the co­oper­a­tion of the cent­ral au­thor­ity, shall sat­is­fy it­self wheth­er and in what way it is pos­sible to ex­ecute the de­cision or­der­ing the re­turn of the child to the State in which he or she was ha­bitu­ally res­id­ent be­fore ab­duc­tion.

¹The de­cision or­der­ing the re­turn of a child must in­clude in­struc­tions for its ex­e­cu­tion and be com­mu­nic­ated to the au­thor­ity re­spons­ible for its ex­e­cu­tion and to the cent­ral au­thor­ity.

²A de­cision or­der­ing the re­turn of a child and the in­struc­tions for ex­e­cu­tion ap­ply throughout Swiss ter­rit­ory.

¹The can­tons shall des­ig­nate a single au­thor­ity re­spons­ible for ex­ecut­ing the de­cision.

²The au­thor­ity shall take ac­count of the best in­terests of the child and en­deav­our to ob­tain the vol­un­tary ex­e­cu­tion of the de­cision.

¹The court may, on re­quest, modi­fy the de­cision or­der­ing the re­turn of a child if the cir­cum­stances that would pre­clude re­turn change sig­ni­fic­antly.

²The court may also de­cide to dis­con­tin­ue ex­e­cu­tion pro­ceed­ings.

Art­icle 26 of the 1980 Hag­ue Con­ven­tion and Art­icle 5 para­graph 3 of the 1980 European Con­ven­tion ap­ply to the costs of the con­cili­ation or me­di­ation pro­ceed­ings, the court pro­ceed­ings and the pro­ced­ure for the ex­e­cu­tion of the de­cision at the can­ton­al and fed­er­al levels.

…¹

The pro­vi­sions of this Act re­lat­ing to in­ter­na­tion­al child ab­duc­tion also ap­ply to ap­plic­a­tions for the re­turn of a child pending be­fore the can­ton­al au­thor­it­ies at the time when this Act enters in­to force.