Summary
International child abduction (ICA) occurs frequently in the EU, with 1,800 cases annually, and has an immense psychological and emotional impact on all children involved, which can be further exacerbated by a slow and complicated judicial process due to a lack of adequate cooperation among Central Authorities, legal practitioners and family mediators. Following on from this, and taking the child’s best interests as a priority, iCare will develop and implement innovative tools and activities to improve the situation of children in ICA cases through strengthening judicial cooperation and incorporating International Family Mediation (IFM) as complementary to judicial proceedings. This will result in a child-friendly, cost-effective and time-efficient judicial process in ICA cases.