The Hague Convention on Parental Responsibility and the Protection of Children enters UK law today.
The Convention – formally known as the Hague Convention on Jurisdiction, Applicable Law, Recognition, Enforcement and Co-operation in respect of Parental Responsibility and Measures for the Protection of Children – covers a wide variety of international legal matters relating to the protection of children, including the protection of children’s property, guardianship, foster parents, representation and parental responsibility.
It sets out which participating states will have the jurisdiction in many cases involving children, and also states that a court’s decision in one “contracting” (participating) state must be recognised in other contracting states.
This will mean, for example, that contact orders made in favour of a parent living in one signatory state will automatically recognised in others, without the need for mirror orders.
The convention also provides provisions for contracting states to cooperate with each in child protection cases, for example requesting protection measures or reports.
The Hague Convention on Parental Responsibility is often referred to as the ‘1996 Hague Convention’ as it was concluded on 19 October of that year. However it was only incorporated into UK law in July this year.
To date the 1996 convention has 39 participating states.
