International seminar on issues around international child abduction
- Details
- Published: February 27, 2023
The IRZ has been organising seminars on the “Application of the Hague Convention of 25 October 1980 on the Civil Law Aspects of International Child Abduction (HKÜ)” in cooperation with the Hague Conference on International Private Law (HCCH), the Federal Office of Justice and the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan (RK) since 2020. A follow-up seminar was held in Almaty on 20-21 October 2022.
Two German experts participated along with Raquel Salinas Peixoto, legal officer at the Hague Conference on International Private Law: Désirée Wollenschläger, officer at the Federal Office of Justice and judge at the District Court and Dr Joanna Guttzeit, liaison judge at the International Hague Liaison Judges Network and liaison judge at the European Judicial Network.
The Chair of the Committee for the Protection of Children's Rights at the Ministry of Education of the RK, Nasymzhan Ospanova, opened the event and moderated the program.
The IRZ experts discussed the following topics:
- Details of the Hague Convention of 25 October 1980 on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction
- Federal Office of Justice as the central authority in Germany for international conflicts regarding custody
- Differences in court negotiations for custody and visitation rights and child abduction
- Use of mediation in court
- Court practice regarding the application of the HKÜ
- Hearing of the child
- Cooperation of central authorities in the application of the HKÜ
- Liaison judges at the Hague International Judges Network
The following speakers attended for Kazakhstan: Tokzhan Dyusembekova, Chair of the Almaty District Juvenile Court; Talgat Taskuzhin, Deputy Head of the Department of International Relations, the Department for Safeguarding the Functioning of Courts at the Supreme Court and Timur Yerdzhanov, International Law Attorney. They addressed problems in the application of the HKÜ in Kazakhstan and described their practical experiences.
The participants (80 attendees) consisted of representatives from the Ministry of Interior of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Supreme Court, the Ministry of Justice, the regional guardianship authorities and the juvenile departments in the police.
The face-to-face format enabled direct dialogue and exchanges with the attendees, who took an active part in the discussions.
The IRZ is planning an event next year with the relevant judges in Kazakhstan on issues around HKÜ.