Child custody in Finland

If the parents are married at the child's birth, they both have parental responsibility.

The mother holds custody. The father can get it through an agreement on custody made when paternity is confirmed. If one parent has sole custody and the parents later marry, both assume custody.

The unmarried father, in one line: The mother has it; the father needs a step: a joint declaration, registration, agreement, or living with the mother at the birth.

Arrangements must serve the child's best interests, and if the parents cannot agree, a court decides. Under joint custody, everyday decisions follow the parent the child lives with, but major decisions need both custodians' consent. A sole custodian makes all decisions, subject to any conditions the court sets.

The court may hear the child if there are compelling reasons, and the child's opinion must be taken into account in decisions. No minimum age is stated.

Under joint custody both custodians must consent to a change of the child's residence and to a foreign passport. A sole custodian may change the child's residence if the court's ruling allows it.

Finland 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.

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

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