Another milestone: the Child Protection Convention has 51 Contracting Parties

In February 2019, two States acceded to the HCCH 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 (Child Protection Convention): Guyana and Nicaragua. Thus, the Convention has reached the milestone of more than 50 Contracting Parties.

The status table of the Convention is available here. The Child Protection Convention will enter into force for both States on 1 December 2019.

Unlike the Child Abduction Convention, the Child Protection Convention has put in place a mechanism of objections to an accession. Under Article 58(3) of the Child Protection Convention an “accession shall have effect only as regards the relations between the acceding State and those Contracting States which have not raised an objection to its accession in the six months after the receipt of the notification referred to in sub-paragraph b of Article 63. Such an objection may also be raised by States at the time when they ratify, accept or approve the Convention after an accession. Any such objection shall be notified to the depositary.”

This is not a small difference as States are more hesitant and weary to file an objection, and thus the Convention is more widely applied among its Contracting Parties. Indeed, there are currently no objections; all previous objections have been withdrawn. See here (Depositary’s website).

See also my previous post on the milestone of the Child Abduction Convention here.