Child custody in Brazil

Both parents hold family power (poder familiar) equally.

The rule is the same: both parents hold family power whether or not they are married, once the father's paternity is established.

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

Since 2014, shared custody is the rule: both parents share decisions and responsibility even if they do not agree, unless one tells the judge they do not want custody or the court finds they are unfit. Shared custody does not mean equal time: the child has a home base and a balanced schedule of time with each parent.

The child's views are heard according to age and maturity.

A parent needs the other's consent, or a court's, to take the child abroad.

Brazil 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.

Brazil 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 Brazil legal-system profile in the Legal Families Atlas →
Who owns what in a marriage in Brazil? →

• Planalto: the Brazilian Civil Code