Morocco ratifies the 1996 Protection of Children Convention

On 22 August 2002, Morocco deposited with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands its instrument of ratification of the Hague Convention of 19 October 1996 on Jurisdiction, Applicable Law, Recognition, Enforcement and Co-operation in respect of Parental Responsibility and Measures for the Protection of Children.

Morocco became thus the first Muslim State to ratify a multilateral convention providing precise rules on the co-operation in respect of parental responsibility and the protection of children.

Since the rules of the Convention are centred around the habitual residence of the child, the child’s natural environment, and since they allow for close co-operation between countries both among judges and among administrations, the Convention has a great potential to facilitate the complex problems of child abduction and contact and visitation rights in the relations between Morocco and the other States Parties to the Convention.

The Convention will enter into force for Morocco on 1 December 2002.