CHILDREN`S KIDNAPPING: PROBLEMS OF CIVIL REGULATION IN EU AND UKRAINE

Abstract

Nowadays the issue of children’s kidnapping remains open. Statistics confirms that the phenomenon of children’s kidnapping has an extraordinary nature: according to the data of the European Commission, 250 thousand children in the EU are lost annually, i.e.1 child per each 2 minutes. The civil law aspect of children’s kidnapping, in contrast to the criminal law, is very poorly regulated at the international level. There are no effective and urgent mechanisms for mutual cooperation between countries, which complicates the search and return of children; in many EU countries, including Ukraine, there are no special jurisdictional bodies responsible for the comprehensive regulation of this problem; there is no mechanism for supporting and rehabilitating the affected family and the returned child. The article considers the problems of an integrated approach to the issue of children’s kidnapping and emphasizes the need to consider this problem in the field of several sciences – psychology, sociology and jurisprudence. The study contains the analysis of the legal regulation of the basic legislative acts of the EU and Ukraine, the problems of practical implementation in 1980, the mechanism of the Hague Convention, the most common concept of “children’s kidnapping” was offered, children’s kidnapping was classified in criminal and civil legal aspect. As one of the most important ways to implement the Hague Convention it was proposed enhancement process of cooperation between the special EU bodies and Ukraine, authorized to deal with issues of children's return, including the creation of special bodies dealing with the problem of returning children and their psychological rehabilitation.