USA joins 1993 Hague Intercountry Adoption Convention

On Wednesday, 12 December 2007, the United States of America deposited its instrument of ratification of the Hague Convention of 29 May 1993 on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption, which it had already signed on 31 March 1994. In accordance with its Article 46(2)(a), the 1993 Convention will enter into force for the US on 1 April 2008. Present at the...

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Twenty-First Diplomatic Session adopts new Hague Convention and Protocol

On Friday, 23 November 2007 the new Hague Convention on the International Recovery of Child Support and Other Forms of Family Maintenance and a Protocol on the Law Applicable to Maintenance Obligations were adopted by the Twenty-First Diplomatic Session of the Hague Conference on Private International Law. The major features of the new Maintenance Convention are: A broadly based system for the...

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Second IIN-HCCH Meeting of Governmental Experts on International Child Abduction by one of their Parents

The Second Meeting of Governmental Experts on International Child Abduction by one of their Parents took place in Buenos Aires from 19 to 21 September 2007. Participants were mainly Judges and Central Authority officers from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Trinidad and Tobago, the United States of...

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Launch of INCASTAT

On 28 September 2007, an electronic statistical database, INCASTAT, was launched, which generates the Annual Statistical Forms concerning return and access applications relating to the Hague Convention of 25 October 1980 on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction; it also produces statistical charts. INCASTAT is available only to the Central Authorities designated...

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Asia-Pacific Regional Meeting

Asia-Pacific Regional Meetingon the work of the Hague Conference on Private International LawSydney, Australia - 27-29 June 2007 From 27 to 29 June 2007, participants from Australia, Bangladesh, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, China, Cook Islands, India, Indonesia, Japan, Republic of Korea, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, New Zealand, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Samoa, Singapore, Sri Lanka,...

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India starts issuing Apostilles

The Permanent Bureau has been informed by the relevant Indian authorities that India starts issuing Apostilles as of today (29 August 2007). For more information on the process of issuing Apostilles in India, please refer to the information provided by the Indian Ministry of External Affairs available at http://mea.gov.in/, under « Apostille »...

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Judicial Seminar for French-speaking African countries on the principal Hague Conventions on International Child Protection, International Judicial and Administrative Co-operation and International Litigation

Francophone African Judges Seminar27-31 August 2007The HagueDialogue between judges and experts from the Francophone African Region to promote the Hague Conventions Judges of the high jurisdictions of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Congo, Chad, Côte d'Ivoire, Egypt, Gabon, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Madagascar, Mali, Morocco, Mauritius, Mauritania, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Togo, Tunisia and...

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80 Contracting States for Child Abduction Convention

On 1 March 2007, Armenia became the 80th Contracting State to the 1980 Hague Child Abduction Convention. This Convention entered into force for Armenia on 1 June 2007. On the same day (1 March 2007), Armenia also acceded to three more Hague Conventions: the Convention of 5 October 1961 on the Conflicts of Laws relating to the Form of Testamentary Dispositions (entry into...

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Permanent Bureau team assists Guatemala with the implementation of the 1993 Hague Convention

In 2002 Guatemala acceded to the 1993 Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption. However, in 2003 the Constitutional Court of Guatemala declared this accession to be unconstitutional. This meant that according to the Guatemalan legal system, the Convention was not in force. Therefore, the depositary of the Hague Convention confirmed in 2003 that the original instrument of accession had been...

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