The UK government has agreed to commission the first-ever analysis of how domestic abuse features in international child abduction cases tried under the 1980 Hague Convention (a treaty requiring signatory countries to swiftly return children removed across borders without a parent's consent). The Ministry of Justice will review all relevant High Court cases from 2024 to 2025, with campaigners hoping the findings will challenge decades-old assumptions that all child removal is harmful and that children must be returned immediately to their country of residence. The move could lead to stronger legal protections for mothers who flee abusive partners abroad and bring their children back to the UK, a journey that currently risks leaving them accused of abduction and facing court proceedings with limited legal aid.