The 6-year-old will stay with her parents. Norway may have violated the Human Rights Convention

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- The District Court in Warsaw granted the request of the District Prosecutor's Office and defense counsel and refused to extradite the parents of the 6-year-old to Norway.

- The mother left with her daughter for Poland in 2022, fearing intervention by the Norwegian children's agency Barnevernet due to the woman's alleged drug use.

- Polish services have not confirmed the information, but Norway has issued a European Arrest Warrant after the parents.

- In August, the parents were arrested by police in Warsaw, and the daughter was taken to a children's home. They were released the next day, and the girl was returned to her parents.

- The court pointed out that the parents had not committed a crime by flying to Poland with the child, and that there was a risk of Norway violating Article 8 of the Convention on Human Rights.

- Legal assistance was provided to the family by the Ordo Iuris Institute.

The mother left for Poland with her daughter in September/October 2022. The father visited them repeatedly in Warsaw. The move to Poland led Barnevernet to initiate proceedings to take custody of the girl while she was already in Poland. Norwegian services alerted the Polish police that the minor was in the care of a person who was a drug addict and a danger to the child. This information led officers to intervene at the mother's residence with the child in October 2022. According to the police notes, the information about the mother provided by the Norwegian service was not confirmed.

The mother presented documents showing that she does not use drugs, as well as a number of certificates confirming that the child has a stable situation in Poland.The girl is under her mother's care, and is provided with medical care, kindergarten and extra-curricular activities.Based on the probation officer's interviews and evidence attached by the child's mother, the Warsaw District Court waived the initiation of proceedings to review the mother's family situation over her daughter.Nonetheless, in July 2023, law enforcement authorities in the Kingdom of Norway issued a European Arrest Warrant after the mother due to the alleged kidnapping of her daughter by the mother.This prompted Polish police to detain the mother and the father visiting the daughter on August 9, 2023 in Warsaw.  The girl was placed in an orphanage which was a traumatic experience for her, as she missed her mother a lot during her separation from her parents, especially, and refused to eat, cried and demanded contact with her mother.

Norway has for years struggled with the abuse of Barnevernet, which immediately removes children from their parents on suspicion of neglect or mistreatment.The agency then transfers the children to a foster family and initiates an adoption procedure.The children's parents usually retain the right to maintain contact with the child, but to an extremely limited extent - under the supervision of a social worker, infrequently and briefly, e.g. one hour-long meeting a year, two 3-hour meetings a year, two 2-hour meetings a year.According to the ECHR, this practice is incompatible with Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The state should create conditions for the reunification of a child with his biological parents, and only as a last resort should the child be permanently transferred to a foster (adoptive) family. Meanwhile, the Norwegian welfare system is based on the "one-chance" principle, according to which a child once taken from his or her parents does not return to them.  In mid-September, the European Court of Human Rights awarded 150,000 euros in compensation to parents aggrieved by Norway's Barnevernet, which took their children away from them.