Difference Between ‘Kidnapping’ and ‘Abduction’
When you talk about kidnapping it usually involves an instance of kidnapping accompanied by a ransom for monetary profits. However, when one talks about abduction, this necessarily may not be so and can cover an act wherein a person has been taken away from his or her original location by persuading him or her, by some act of fraud or with a forceful way that may or may not include violence.
The Federal Decree-Law No. 31 of 2021 On the Issuance of the Crimes and Penalties Law (the ‘UAE Penal Code’) penalizes the act of kidnapping. Article 395 reads that any person who kidnaps, arrests, or detains another person, or deprives him of his freedom, by any means, either by himself or through an intermediary, in violation of the law, shall be sentenced to life imprisonment.
The penalty shall be life imprisonment in the following instances:
- If the act takes place by impersonating a public capacity, pretending the performance or assignment of a public service or to contact under a false identity.
- In case the act is performed by way of deception or accompanied by the use of force, threat of killing, inflicting severe bodily harm or by acts of physical or psychological torture.
- If the act is perpetrated by two or more armed persons.
- If the period of kidnapping, arresting, detaining or depriving freedom exceeds one month.
- In case the victim is female, a juvenile, an insane or imbecile, or a disabled person.
- In case the purpose of the act is to draw profit, revenge, rape the victim, disgrace him, injure him or have him perpetrate a crime.
- If the act is perpetrated against a public servant during, or because of, the discharge of his duties.
Should the act lead to the death of the victim, the sanction shall be the death penalty. The same penalty will be levied on a person acting as an intermediary in the commission of this crime.
Federal Law No. 3 of 2016 On Child Rights, also known as ‘Wadeema’s Law’, stresses that all children must be provided with appropriate living standards, access to health services, education, and equal opportunities in essential services and facilities without any kind of discrimination. The law protects children against all forms of negligence, exploitation, and physical and psychological abuse.
Parental Child Abduction
What Constitutes Parental Child Abduction?
Parental child abduction is an increasing reality today. It can be defined as an act wherein a parent removes a child from its habitual place of residence or domicile without the consent of the other parent. It is also defined as the wrongful retention of the child by one parent without the consent of the other parent.
Needless to say, the complexities involving parental child kidnapping increases when it occurs internationally and involves different jurisdiction and thus, invites the application of different laws.
Parental child abduction is quite often faced when a couple is contemplating a separation, and it leaves one parent at a disadvantage compared to the other. As a preventive measure, UAE laws allow for a travel ban request to be imposed on minor children at the request of either parent. When the request is allowed by the court, it functions as a preventive measure to ensure that parental child abduction is not allowed.
Legal Update:
The above information might not apply if both parties are non-muslim. Starting from the 1st of February 2023, UAE issued specific family law to be applied between non-muslim expatriate residents in case none of them wanted to apply his/her home country's law in the UAE. To know more information about this law, please feel free to click this link.
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