Removal of parental custody and adoption in order to protect children.
JUDGMENT
Mohamed Hasan v. Norway 26.04.2018 (no. 27496/15)
SUMMARY
Removal of parental custody and approval of adoption. Exercise of violence on the mother by the father. Decision of welfare to put children in foster families. Article 8 (right to respect for private and family life) has not been violated because the mother was unable to protect her children from their violent father.
PROVISION
Article 8
PRINCIPAL FACTS
The applicant, Ivan Mohamed Hasan, is an Iraqi national who was born in 1979 and lives in Norway.
The case concerned the removal of the applicant’s parental rights over her two daughters and their adoption by a foster family against her wishes.
Ms Mohamed Hasan moved to Norway in 2006 after marrying an Iraqi-born man who had moved there in 1999. They had two daughters, born in February 2008 and June 2010 respectively.
She was involved with the childcare authorities for several years from 2009 owing to violence from her husband. She spent time in crisis centres with her first daughter and the authorities took several decisions about the family, including restricting the husband’s access to the applicant and their daughter. In November 2010 the two children were placed in an emergency foster home. In June 2011, the children were abducted by two masked people while they were having a contact meeting with the applicant, who was injured in the attack. The children were later found in a flat and the father admitted he had orchestrated the abduction attempt.
Later in June 2011 the County Social Welfare Board issued an order, which was upheld on appeal, for both children to be taken into care in separate foster homes at secret addresses and no contact was allowed between them and their parents. A further decision was taken in February 2014 to keep the children in foster care and to allow their adoption by their foster parents as being in their best interests, a decision which was upheld on appeal by the City Court in September 2014. The domestic courts found in particular that the applicant would not be able to protect the children from their father’s violence and took account of the children’s attachment to their foster parents after an extended period in care. The applicant and her husband were both refused leave to appeal.
Ms Mohamed Hasan complained under Article 8 (right to respect for private and family life) about the decision to remove her parental authority over her two children and to authorise their adoption.
THE DECISION OF THE COURT
No violation of Article 8(echrcaselaw.com editing).
