In this video, Dr Hassan Elhais talks about the importance of a Signed Court Agreement in the UAE.
Transcript
Attendee: This is also for you, Hassan.
0:05
Attendee: For some advice for us in South Africa we very often have requests from one of the parents to bring a child on holiday
0:15
Attendee: to Dubai in particular and generally because it's not a Hague country one would refuse consent.
0:23
Attendee: Are you... I'm asking for advice based on that Malaysian case.
0:28
Attendee: If one has a written undertaking or a written agreement as to the dates of departure and return
0:35
Attendee: and an absolute and unequivocal undertaking that the parent will return the child,
0:40
Attendee: if the parent then unlawfully retains the child,
0:43
Attendee: are you saying the court would enforce that agreement between the parties and send the child back?
0:49
Dr Elhais: Okay, I will answer this point but first I would like to stress on the fact that time in such types of cases is very essential.
0:56
Dr Elhais: The problem that... usually the parent who has been subject to,
0:59
Dr Elhais: who's a victim of parental child abduction would be under very big mental stress and each day makes a difference.
1:04
Dr Elhais: So, when we suggest a solution, we try to suggest a solution which is the safest and the fastest.
1:09
Dr Elhais: The option which you just referred to is applicable but it's not the safest,
1:13
Dr Elhais: because when you get an undertaking, you would be subject to the court's discretionary power.
1:18
Dr Elhais: The court might take the undertaking or might not take the undertaking,
1:21
Dr Elhais: and you cannot enforce it without getting a court order and getting the court order will take a few months.
1:26
Dr Elhais: So here, if the urgent matter courts didn't accept it,
1:29
Dr Elhais: so here, we are subject to potential time - wasted time, which will make the client quite concerned.
1:36
Dr Elhais: So, what we suggest... that's a very common situation by the way we are getting this question regularly.
1:41
Dr Elhais: What we usually suggest to the parents in a similar case is to get the letter signed in the form of an agreement before the UAE courts
1:49
Dr Elhais: by this way, the applicant could be the mother because the jurisdiction will be taken as per the respondent,
1:56
Dr Elhais: so, the applicant will be the mother she can appoint an attorney, she will file an application in the UAE for settlement,
2:02
Dr Elhais: the husband will attend physically or virtually or through an attorney,
2:07
Dr Elhais: both of them will sign maybe one- or two-pages agreement that the child will be in the UAE,
2:12
Dr Elhais: for how long or even for a multiple number of times, it could be limited with time, limited with number of scenarios, whatever the agreement would be.
2:19
Dr Elhais: This agreement will be signed in front of the court and it will get stamped that it will be equal to any judgement.
2:24
Dr Elhais: In this case, we will have again the same speed game,
2:28
Dr Elhais: if the child came here and the father decided for some reason to find excuses to hold the child,
2:34
Dr Elhais: you will apply immediately for an enforcement, of course, the father will apply to challenge the enforcement,
2:38
Dr Elhais: but challenging the enforcement will take a long time.
2:41
Dr Elhais: So instead of being under stress that the child is abducted,
2:44
Dr Elhais: now the husband is under stress that while he's challenging the agreement we will enforce it
2:48
Dr Elhais: and we'll take the child back and return him back to the home country
2:51
Dr Elhais: and we will give him his own time, let him fight here.
2:53
Dr Elhais: But without getting the agreement signed in front of the court, if we just got an undertaking signed outside (of the UAE)
2:58
Dr Elhais: we will have to follow a longer process and this longer process even will not be as guaranteed as the agreement if it was signed in the court.
Originally published on 29 May 2024
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