The Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction is a multi-lateral treaty, meaning that it is a treaty between three or more states. Every state that signs it agrees to abide by all the parts of the treaty, unless they have made specific reservations from the terms of the treaty.

Parents whose children were wrongfully removed or are being wrongfully retained need to seek assistance under the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. When a parent seeks help for a parental abduction they need to file a case and usually have an attorney or lawyer in the state where the child is being held to help them.

One of the most important sections is the one that deals with legal aid and how foreign nationals are to be treated in another state. If a state provides legal aid to its own citizens in regards to having a case heard under the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, then they must provide that same access to a foreign national who is resident in their own state.

Article 25

Nationals of the Contracting States and persons who are habitually resident within those States shall be entitled in matters concerned with the application of this Convention to legal aid and advice in any other Contracting State on the same conditions as if they themselves were nationals of and habitually resident in that State.