Human rights

When considering the removal of the parent of a British child from the UK, in making the proportionality assessment under Art 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), the best interests of the child had to be a primary consideration. That meant that they had to be considered first. They could, of course, be outweighed by the cumulative effect of other considerations. The “best interests of the child” broadly meant the well-being of the child. Specifically, it involved asking whether it was reasonable to expect the child to live in another country.

Relevant to that would be the level of the child’s integration in the UK and the length of absence from the other country; where and with whom the child was to live and the arrangements for looking after the child in the other country; and the strength of the child’s relationships with parents or other family members which would be severed if the child had to