It is possible! Another milestone for the Hague Conference: the Intercountry Adoption Convention has 101 Contracting Parties

Another HCCH Convention has recently reached the number of 100 Contracting Parties. In February and March 2019, two States joined the HCCH Convention of 29 May 1993 on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption (Intercountry Adoption Convention): Guyana (by accession) and Honduras (by ratification).

The Intercountry Adoption Convention will enter into force for Guyana and Honduras on 1 June 2019 and 1 July 2019, respectively. The status table is available here.

As announced, Guyana and Honduras are the first States in the Americas to become a party to all four modern HCCH Children’s Conventions. In addition to the Intercountry Adoption Convention, the other modern HCCH Children’s Conventions are:

• the HCCH Convention of 25 October 1980 on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction (Child Abduction Convention);
• 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); and
• the HCCH Convention of 23 November 2007 on the International Recovery of Child Support and Other Forms of Family Maintenance (Child Support Convention).

There is also a Protocol of 23 November 2007 on the Law Applicable to Maintenance Obligations but neither of them is yet a party.

The other two Hague Conventions that have reached 100 or more Contracting Parties are the Child Abduction Convention (see my previous post here) and the HCCH Convention of 5 October 1961 Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents (Apostille Convention). The latter has 117 Contracting Parties, the latest one being the Philippines (to enter into force on 14 May 2019 see here).

The HCCH news item is available here.