The purpose of this research is to look for a legal basis which a parent whose child has been abducted can retrieve his child. The Hague Convention deals with the question of parents who abduct their own children and take them to foreign countries. Discusses to what extent the African Human Rights System can complement the mechanism provided by the Hague Convention. The significance of this study is that it captures a seemingly harmless act for what it truly is. / Thesis (LLM (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa)) -- University of Pretoria, 2007. / Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Law University of Pretoria, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Masters of Law (LLM in Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa). Prepared under the supervision of Associate Professor John-Jean Barya of the Faculty of Law, University of Makerere, Uganda. / http://www.chr.up.ac.za/ / Centre for Human Rights / LLM