Judgment concerning Portugal
In the case of F.D. and H.C. v. Portugal the Court held that there had been a violation of the right to respect for private and family life.
The case concerned the enforcement of a seek-and-find order issued by the French authorities in the context of a custody dispute in respect of H.C. – who had been brought by his father, F.D., to Portugal from France – and his subsequent return to his mother.
The Court found that neither father nor son had been heard by a court in Portugal before the decision to return the child had been taken, and the alleged risk to the child of ill-treatment had not been examined, denying them their procedural rights. The Portuguese authorities had ignored the applicant’s rights as the father, and ignored whether the child’s return had been in his best interests. The Court also found that the authorities had failed to protect the child when he had been taken and kept at a police station while his father had been arrested. Overall, the decision had not been “necessary in a democratic society”.