Failure to return a child: when the other parent refuses to hand them over

Published on 20/07/2026

A contact or accommodation right fixed by a judgment, and yet, when the day comes, the child is not there: the other parent does not "hand them back", invokes a last-minute obstacle, or disappears for a few days. This situation — failure to return a child (non-représentation d'enfant) — is one of the most painful and most bewildering after a separation. Here, in a documentary way, is what this concept covers and what French law provides, on the basis of the texts and of the official sources.

What exactly are we talking about?

Failure to return a child refers to the act, by the person who has the child, of refusing to hand them over (to "represent" them) to the person entitled to claim them: the other parent under their contact and accommodation rights, or the parent with whom the child has their residence where the other does not bring them back. In concrete terms, it is the handover appointment that does not take place because one of the two refuses.

Essential point: the concept presupposes a right already established by a court decision (a judgment of the family court judge, the juge aux affaires familiales or JAF) or by an approved parental agreement. It is this title that sets who is entitled to claim the child, and when. Without a decision or an agreement, there is no "right to claim them" within the meaning of the law — see our guide The child's residence and contact rights.

A criminal offence: Article 227-5 of the Criminal Code

Failure to return a child is not merely a civil breach: it is an offence (délit). Article 227-5 of the Criminal Code defines and punishes it:

"Unduly refusing to return a minor child to the person entitled to claim them is punishable by one year's imprisonment and a fine of 15,000 euros."

The law provides for aggravated forms where the child is held for a long time, taken outside France, or where the perpetrator has already been deprived of parental authority:

Situation	Article of the Criminal Code	Penalty incurred
Undue refusal to return the child	227-5	1 year's imprisonment + 15 000 € fine
Child held for more than 5 days without anyone knowing where they are, or unduly held outside the territory of the Republic	227-9	3 years + 45 000 €
Perpetrator deprived of parental authority (or subject to a withdrawal of its exercise)	227-10	3 years + 45 000 €

⚠️ The 5-day threshold and removal outside France shift the facts into a far heavier offence, close to parental abduction. If the child is taken abroad or cannot be found, the situation becomes an emergency: the European number 116 000 (free, 24/7) supports the families of missing children.

What makes out the offence — and what does not

Three elements are required for the offence to be made out:

an established right: a court decision or an approved agreement fixing the right to claim the child;
an undue refusal: the word "unduly" in Article 227-5 is central. A justified refusal does not fall foul of the law. Case law has accepted that a parent may refuse to present the child in the event of real, present and established danger to them (state of necessity, Article 122-7 of the Criminal Code) — but the danger must be proved, not merely alleged;
an intention to defeat the other's right (the mental element).

Conversely, not every hitch is an offence. An isolated delay, an occasional and good-faith obstacle (a sick child with a certificate, a cancelled train) are matters of incident rather than of offence. It is the repetition and the deliberate character of the refusal that give the step its weight.

Not to be confused

Several neighbouring situations obey different rules:

Non-payment of child maintenance. Failing to pay the contribution due is another offence, abandonment of family (abandon de famille) (Article 227-3 of the Criminal Code) — unconnected with whether or not the child is handed over. See our guide Child maintenance.
Moving house without informing. Changing residence without telling the other parent, where this affects the exercise of parental authority, is covered by Article 227-6 of the Criminal Code (6 months' imprisonment and a fine of 7 500 €) — which is again something other than failure to return a child.
Abduction / international removal. Where the child is taken and held outside France, one enters the aggravated forms seen above and, often, the field of international cooperation (the Hague Convention). This is no longer a mere scheduling hitch.

What to do in practice

Faced with a refusal, a few documented reflexes recur in the official pages:

Record and date the incident. Note precisely the date, the time and the place of the missed handover, the persons present, and keep the messages (text messages, e-mails) surrounding it.
Report it to the police. Two distinct steps exist, which it is useful not to confuse:

	Police log entry	Complaint
What it is	A declaration simply recorded at the police station or the gendarmerie	The act that sets in motion criminal proceedings
Effect	Dates and leaves a trace of the facts, without automatic prosecution	Refers the matter to the public prosecutor, who decides what follows
Often used	To timestamp the first incidents	Where the refusal recurs or is clearly made out

The choice between the two calls for preparation: our guide Police log entry or complaint? details their respective effects. 3. Refer, or refer again, to the family court judge. The criminal side does not, on its own, alter the custody arrangements. To have the decision enforced or adapted (specifying the handover arrangements, reviewing the residence), it is the family court judge who must be seised — see Applying to the family court judge and Preparing for a hearing before the JAF. Where the refusals arise in a context of violence, the protection order may be a route; on the sharing of rights, see Parental authority and Shared residence.

Documenting each incident: that is where the evidence is won

What all these steps have in common is evidence. A verbal refusal, if it is not recorded, leaves no trace; repeated and documented, it becomes an established fact. For each incident, the ideal is to note, on the very same day: the exact date and time, the place, what happened, the witnesses present, and to keep the written exchanges. It is this body of material, dated and consistent, that speaks before a judge or a prosecutor — not a general impression.

A chronological log of the refusals is, for that reason, the centrepiece of the file. Our guides Keeping a timeline of events and Building an evidence file for the JAF explain how to build one.

Having a failure to return a child recognised requires precisely dated and repeated facts: each missed appointment, with its timestamp, its witnesses and the messages surrounding it. This is the organisational work Aridelle is designed to make easier — gathering your supporting documents, keeping track of events as they happen and preparing your questions for a professional.

For any individual situation, turn to a lawyer, a point-justice or Allô Service Public (3939), a free information service that covers family law.