International Child Abduction and the Importance of Speaking Catalan

Today’s Boletín Oficial del Estado publishes Spain’s acceptance of the accession of Andorra to the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction; it will enter into force on 1 November 2012. That’s how I’ve learnt about Andorra’s first reservation to the Convention:

Reservation relating to article 24. In accordance with the provisions of article 42 and pursuant to article 24, second paragraph of the Convention, the Principality of Andorra declares that it will not accept the applications, communications and other documents sent to its Authority unless they are accompanied by a translation into Catalan or, where that is not feasible, a translation into French.

Which is quite easy to understand, Catalan being the official language there.

I must confess that before realising that I was stricken by the text. We are living a turbulent political moment in Spain.