International child abduction to or from Lithuania

In everyday language, “abduction” sounds like a crime. Here it means something narrower: a child has been taken to another country, or kept there, without the agreement of a parent who had a say in where the child lives.

Two typical situations:

• a parent moves abroad with the child without asking the other parent;
• the child goes abroad for the summer with one parent and is not brought back on the agreed date.

Both count, as long as the other parent shared the right to decide where the child lives and was actually involved in the child’s life. In most families both parents have that right automatically, without any court order. It does not matter that the child lived mainly with one of them.

The rules cover children under 16. If there is no abduction and you simply disagree about where your child should live, see our guide on child custody in Lithuania.

The Hague Convention is an international treaty that Lithuania, all EU countries and many others have signed. Its logic is simple: no parent should gain an advantage by moving a child across a border.

So the court in the country where the child is now does not decide which parent is better for the child. It decides only whether the child should go back to the country where they were living. The courts there then decide residence and contact in the usual way.

What matters is where the child was actually living before the move, not the child’s passport. A child with a Lithuanian passport who has always lived in Ireland is, for these rules, living in Ireland.

An example

James and Eglė live in Manchester with their six-year-old daughter. Eglė, who is Lithuanian, takes the girl to visit her parents in Šiauliai for two weeks and then tells James they are staying. James never agreed to a move.

The Lithuanian court will not decide whether the girl is better off with her mother or her father. It will decide whether she should go back to England. If she does, the English courts decide where she lives from then on, and Eglė can ask them for permission to move to Lithuania with her.

If the move has not happened yet and your partner is only planning it, see my Lithuanian partner wants to move back to Lithuania with our child.

You can ask for your child’s return through the Central Authority in your country, or directly to the Lithuanian court. In Lithuania, all these cases are heard by one court: the Vilnius Regional Court (Vilniaus apygardos teismas).

What you can expect:

• Speed. Within the EU, the court should decide within six weeks, and so should the appeal court.
• Protection while the case runs. The court can ban the other parent from leaving Lithuania and from taking the child out of the country.
• One appeal. The decision can be appealed once, to the Court of Appeal of Lithuania. There is no further appeal.

The full process, step by step, is described in our guide on how a return case works in Lithuania.

If your child lived in Lithuania and was taken abroad, you can ask for their return through the Lithuanian Central Authority, through the authority in the other country, or directly to a court there. The case is heard abroad, but whether the move was unlawful is judged under Lithuanian law.

Lithuanian law is clear on this point. A parent may move abroad permanently with a child only with the other parent’s written consent or a court decision, even if the child lives with that parent. Moving without either can lead to an order to bring the child back.

If you are the one planning a move, read our guide on moving abroad with a child from Lithuania first.

Within the EU, the “serious risk” exception is narrower still: the court cannot rely on it if protective arrangements are in place in the home country.

The court will usually invite the parents to try mediation, if it suits the case and does not cause delay. An agreement reached this way can cover both the return and what happens afterwards.

A child who is able to form their own views will be given a real opportunity to express them, directly or through a specialist.