Why the Law is Against Forcing a Child to Change Home
A Legal and Human Reflection from the UAE Courts
Not Every Custody Case Is About “Who Deserves More” – Sometimes It’s About Where the Child Belongs.
In most custody disputes, the common question is: “Who is more entitled — the mother or the father?”
But in some cases, it’s not about who, it’s about where would be the child’s home,
about the country that shaped his/her language, routine, and sense of security and belongingness.
When a Parent Moves the Child Abroad Without Consent — Is It Freedom or Abduction?
In a real case represented by senior lawyers of “MY FAMILY LAWYER” heard by a UAE court, where a mother moved her daughter from the United States where she was born and brought up, to the UAE, without the father’s consent, and without any court order.
The mother then filed for custody before a local court in Abu Dhabi, seeking to obtain a judgment granting her full parental rights here.
What Does the Law Say About This?
UAE courts — like many legal systems around the world — uphold the principle of the child’s “habitual residence.”
This means:
Where was the child living naturally and stably before the dispute arose?
It’s a cornerstone principle in the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, which, although not ratified by the UAE, has begun to influence some court decisions here, especially in international custody cases.
What Does That Really Mean?
If for instance a child was living in the U.S., attending school, seeing friends, sleeping in their own room and then moving her across the globe without prior legal or mutual consent is not considered a parental right. It is, in the eyes of many legal systems, an unlawful transfer —and possibly, international parental abduction.
How Do UAE Courts Handle This?
Judges prioritize the best interest of the child above all else.
They evaluate the child’s well-being in the new environment versus the one they were uprooted from.
If it’s proven that the child was moved without legal justification, and if the move disrupts their emotional or educational stability, courts may rule that the child be returned to their original country, regardless of which parent resides in the UAE.
The Father in This Case Isn’t Seeking Control — He’s Seeking Balance
In these cases, the father is not fighting for power.
He’s asking that his child be returned to her natural world — to her bed, her school, her accent, to the life that was taken from her without warning.
Justice Isn’t Always in the Court File
Justice doesn’t always mean “case closed.”
Sometimes, it means restoring a child’s sense of belonging, protecting her from the emotional cost of a conflict she never chose, and recognizing that custody battles should never become identity battles.
