Child custody in Sierra Leone

In a civil marriage both parents have parental responsibility, and the child's best interests are the main test. Under customary law the father is often the guardian and the child may belong to the father's family.

Under most statutes in this tradition the mother has custody of a child born outside marriage, and the father can gain rights by acknowledging the child, by agreement or by a court order.

The unmarried father, in one line: Depends on the form of the marriage and on the community.

The court decides custody by the child's best interests under the country's children's act. A young child usually stays with the mother and the other parent has contact, though the court can decide otherwise.

Children's acts in this tradition say the child's views must be considered according to age and maturity.

Where both parents have parental responsibility, taking a child to live abroad generally needs both parents' agreement or a court's permission. Check the rules before any move.

Sierra Leone is not in force under the 1980 Hague Child Abduction Convention, so there is no treaty route to ask for a child to be returned. Local advice is essential.

• Many families live under customary law, which varies from one community to the next and is often unwritten. In some communities a child belongs to the father's family, in others to the mother's, and the courts increasingly apply the child's best interests whatever the custom says.

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

Read the Sierra Leone legal-system profile in the Legal Families Atlas →
Who owns what in a marriage in Sierra Leone? →

• JuriGlobe, University of Ottawa: world legal systems
• World Bank: Women, Business and the Law (country data on parenthood and marriage)