Status of the 2007 Hague Convention and the 2007 Hague Protocol
The 2007 Hague Convention has currently (20 April 2012) 7 signatories:
Albania, Burkina Faso, Bosnia Herzegovina, the European Union, Norway, Ukraine and the United States of America.
Only Norway has so far ratified the Convention. The Convention, however, needs a second ratification, acceptance or approval to enter into force. The date of entry into force will be “the first day of the month following the expiration of three months after the deposit of the second instrument of ratification, acceptance or approval”, see Article 60 of the Convention. For the transitional provisions see Article 56 of the Convention.
Click here for an update on the status information regarding the 2007 Hague Convention.
The 2007 Hague Protocol has currently (20 April 2012) 2 signatories:
European Union (without Denmark and the United Kingdom) and Serbia.
The European Union (without Denmark and the United Kingdom) has already deposited its instrument of approval. For the Protocol to enter into force a second ratification, acceptance or approval is necessary as for the 2007 Hague Convention (see for the date of entry into force Article 25 of the Protocol). For the transitional provisions see Article 22 of the Protocol.
Click here for an update on the status information regarding the 2007 Hague Protocol.
It is important to note that although the 2007 Hague Protocol is not yet in force it is already provisionally applied within the European Union (with the exception of Denmark and the United Kingdom) as of 18 June 2011. The European Union took this unusual decision in order to not delay the application of the Maintenance Regulation (see Article 76 of the Regulation) which was depending on the applicability of the 2007 Hague Protocol (see the Declaration of the European Community).
The entry into force of both the 2007 Hague Convention and the 2007 Hague Protocol is expected in the near future. The European Union, having signed the instrument in April 2011 is preparing the implementation so that the 2007 Hague Convention will soon operate alongside the Maintenance Regulation in the European Member States (click here for the relations of these instruments).
Who can join the 2007 Convention and the 2007 Protocol? Both, the 2007 Hague Convention and the 2007 Hague Protocol can be joined by any State and independent from one another, i.e. despite the name “Protocol” the 2007 Hague Protocol can be joined by any State whether or not this State is a Contracting State to the 2007 Hague Convention and vice versa, see for details Article 58 of the Convention and Article 23 of the Protocol. It should be mentioned that the 2007 Hague Convention and Protocol are the first Hague instruments that can be joined by Regional Economic Integration Organisations; a novelty introduced for the European Community but open to any other Regional Economic Integration Organisation in the future that would fulfil the criteria set forth in these Hague instruments.