Hague Child Abduction Convention Picks up more Contracting States: Pakistan and Philippines

On Dec 22, 2016, Pakistan deposited its instrument of accession and became a contracting party to the Hague Convention of 25 October 1980 on Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, effective March 1, 2017.  The Philippines did the same earlier in 2016.

This Convention creates a procedure to expedite the return of children who have been abducted back to the state where they had been habitually living and where the law conferred custody.  

In recent years, many populous countries have become contracting states under this Convention, thereby substantially expanding the availability of the benefits it provides.   In addition to Pakistan (population:  182 million) and the Philippines (98.4 million), other fairly recent accessions include the Russian Federation (143.5 million) in 2011, South Korea (50.2 million) in 2013 and Japan (127.3 million) in 2014.  There are now 96 contracting states, which include the U.S.A., most European countries, Mexico, Argentina and Brazil.  Sadly, India and the People’s Republic of China are not among them (except for the Hong Kong and Macau Special Administrative Regions).