Child custody in Slovakia

The two parents jointly share parental rights and obligations towards the child. Sole custody is possible only if the other parent is dead, lacks legal capacity or has lost their rights.

Parents share parental rights whether or not the child was born in marriage.

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

Parents can agree an arrangement and the court approves it. Without agreement the court decides how the rights are exercised, in particular which parent has physical custody. Parental rights remain joint. Physical custody can go to one parent, or be alternating if both parents are fit, both want it and it serves the child's interest. The parent with physical custody makes routine decisions.

The official fact sheet does not say when the child is heard.

Moving the child abroad is listed among the important issues that need the other parent's consent. If the parents disagree, the court decides at the request of one parent.

Slovakia 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.

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

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