ABSTRACT
Mrs Ignaccolo-Zenide, a French national, and her husband DZ, who held French and Romanian nationality, had two children. Following their divorce, a French court ruled that the children were to live with her. During the 1990 holidays, the children went to stay with DZ, who was living in the US. At the end of the holidays he refused to return the children to the applicant. He changed his address several times and then fled to Romania in March 1994. On 14 December 1994, the Bucharest Court of First Instance issued an injunction ordering that the children be returned to the applicant. The applicant’s efforts to have the injunction enforced proved unsuccessful. Since 1990, she had seen her children only once, at a meeting organised by the Romanian authorities on 29 January 1997. The applicant complained that the failure of the Romanian authorities to enforce the injunction of the First Instance Court amounted to a breach of her right to respect for family life. Comm found unanimously V8.
