Child custody in Belgium

Parental authority is exercised jointly by both parents, whether or not they live together and whether or not they are married, as long as each parent's parentage is established.

The rule is the same for unmarried parents. If parentage is not established for one parent, or that parent is dead, absent or unable to express their will, the other parent exercises authority alone.

The unmarried father, in one line: Both parents have it, married or not, once the father's paternity is established.

Joint exercise continues after divorce or separation. The parents can agree how to organise it. Otherwise the family court can give sole exercise to one parent, while the other keeps the right of supervision and of contact, which can be refused only for very serious reasons. Where the parents share authority and cannot agree, the court prefers equal living arrangements if at least one parent asks for them, unless that is not the most appropriate solution.

Every minor is entitled to be heard on matters that concern them. The official fact sheet gives no fixed age; the child's wishes count if they are old enough.

The official fact sheet does not address moving abroad. A move of house without notice can affect living arrangements and contact, and the other parent can apply to the family court or, in an emergency, to the judge for urgent matters.

Belgium is a party to the 1980 Hague Child Abduction Convention, which lets a parent ask for a child wrongly taken to another country to be returned. It works only with countries that have accepted its accession, so check the other country on the treaty status table.

Within the EU, Regulation (EU) 2019/1111 (called Brussels IIb) decides which country's courts handle parental responsibility: in principle the courts of the country where the child habitually lives, and it speeds up the return of a child wrongly taken to another member state. Denmark does not take part in it.

Belgium belongs to the Civil law family. Family law grows out of the legal tradition, so it helps to know how the system works.

Read the Belgium legal-system profile in the Legal Families Atlas →
Who owns what in a marriage in Belgium? →
Divorce rate and trend in Belgium →

• European e-Justice Portal: parental responsibility, child custody and contact rights in Belgium