On June 15, 2022, the Supreme Court of the United States unanimously held that in cases under the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction (the Hague Convention), once a finding is made that returning a child to a parent residing in a foreign country would expose the child to a "grave risk of harm," the court may refuse to return the child without considering whether any "ameliorative measures" may be implemented in that foreign country to mitigate the risk of harm. Golan v. Saada, 596 U.S. ___ (2022). This decision brings to an end a long-term split among the U.S. federal circuit courts, where some courts required a mandatory consideration of ameliorative measures post finding of the grave risk of harm and others expressly refused to do so. Most significantly, for the first time, the Supreme Court explicitly held that "the Convention sets as a primary goal the safety of the child." In doing so, the Supreme Court rejected the long-held view of some federal circuit courts that the Convention "pursue[s] return exclusively or at all costs."

The Hague Convention requires a signatory state promptly to return a child "wrongfully" removed by one parent without the consent of the other parent to that state from another signatory state where the child habitually resided. The Hague Convention, however, expressly allows a court of a country to which a child was removed to refuse to return the child to her country of habitual residence if such return would expose the child to a "grave risk of physical or psychological harm." Neither the Convention nor the implementing legislation of any signatory country contains any additional requirements for the application of this "grave risk of harm" defense. Nevertheless, prior to Golan v. Saada, several U.S. federal circuit courts, including the Second Circuit, from which this appeal was taken, required that the party asserting the "grave risk of harm" defense also prove that no ameliorative measures could be put into place to ensure adequate protection of the child in her country of habitual residence.