15 Years of the Washington Declaration, 2-4 April 2025
Posted: 29 Apr 2025 by Heather Hostetter
I was honored to attend and MC the two-day conference held on April 2-4, 2025, titled “15 Years of the HCCH Washington Declaration – Progress and Perspectives on International Relocation.” This event was co-hosted by the HCCH, the IAFL, and the Embassy of Canada. For those of you who are not familiar, the Washington Declaration was adopted by the HCCH in 2010, and it is a set of recommendations to provide guidance to courts and legislatures around the world on how to handle cases where one parent wants to relocate a child to another country. My biggest takeaways from the conference were that 1) the principles and guidance in the Declaration are as relevant today as they were 15 years ago, if not more so; 2) as practitioners, we should be referring to the Declaration and asking courts to consider the factors outlined therein when deciding international relocation cases – there is no need to reinvent the wheel on what a court should be considering. It has been well thought out already; and 3) all the stakeholders on this issue – even those who might seem diametrically opposed, want the same thing: enforceable orders, children’s best interests being paramount, cooperation between jurisdictions, and reducing child custody abductions.
IAFL was well represented at this conference – Rachael Kelsey gave welcoming remarks, Carolina Marin Pedreno and Melissa Kucinski moderated panels, and Awatif Al Khouri, Karabo Ozah, Anil Malhotra, Soma Kolcsenyi, Lola Lopez-Muelas, Patricia Kuyumdijian de Williams, Anna Worwood, Professor Marilyn Freeman, Marzia Ghigliazza and Professor Nicola Taylor were speakers. The presenters across the board at the event uniformly agreed that better legal procedures in their countries regarding relocation would provide more certainty to litigants. And a key to reaching better legal procedures seems to lie in part on prioritizing relocation cases in court systems so, the cases are heard timelier.
I highly recommend everyone reading the part of the Divorce Act in Canada regarding international relocation – ground breaking stuff. Tell us more, our fellows from Canada! And I was fascinated to hear about Argentina taking into account the potential negative impact on a parent’s career prospects by virtue of the fact that he or she moved to their spouse’s home country for the good of the family overall. However, their inability to work puts them in future peril once the family separates.
This conference is the exactly the type of work our organization should be involved in and we have something valuable to provide in return. Speaking of how we can participate, on April 16th in your email, you received a survey regarding international relocation procedures that was put together by Fellows, Anna Worwood, Hassan Elhais and Anil Malhotra, on behalf of the Relocation of Children Committee. Please take the time to fill it out. There was consensus at the conference that more statistics mean more transparency, accountability, and education which can lessen the occurrence of abductions. This is information our group is uniquely situated to provide to the HCCH. Please fill it out by end of this week.
See you in Istanbul!
Best,
Heather Hostetter, IAFL President-Elect
