Hague Maintence Convention

Hague Convention on the International Recovery of Child Support and Other Forms of Family Maintenance

Convention of 23 November 2007 on the International Recovery of Child Support and Other Forms of Family Maintenance
Parties   Signatories that did not ratify   Party (treaty not entered into force)
Signed	23 November 2007
Location	The Hague, The Netherlands
Effective	1 January 2013
Condition	Ratification by 2 states
Signatories	11,
Parties	12 covering 38 countries  Albania  Bosnia-Herzegovina  Brazil  Belarus  European Union  Honduras  Kazakhstan  Montenegro  Norway  Turkey  Ukraine  United States
Depositary	Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Netherlands)
Languages	English and French

Hague Maintenance Protocol

Protocol on the Law Applicable to Maintenance Obligations
Parties   Signatory that did not ratify   Party (treaty not entered into force)
Signed	23 November 2007
Location	The Hague, The Netherlands
Effective	1 August 2013
Condition	Ratification by 2 states
Signatories	4
Parties	4  European Union (all 28 Member States, except Denmark and the UK)  Brazil  Kazakhstan  Serbia

The Hague Convention on the International Recovery of Child Support and Other Forms of Family Maintenance, also referred to as the Hague Maintenance Convention or the Hague Child Support Convention is a multilateral treaty governing the enforcement of judicial decisions regarding child support (and other forms of family support) extraterritorially. It is one of a number of conventions in the area of private international law of the Hague Conference on Private International Law in 2007. The convention is open to all states as well as to Regional Economic Integration Organizations as long as they are composed of sovereign states only and have sovereignty in (part of) the content of the convention. The convention entered into force on 1 January 2013 between Norway and Albania, with Bosnia-Herzegovina (2013), Ukraine (2013), the European Union (2014, except with respect to Denmark), Montenegro (2017), United States (2017), Turkey (2017), Kazakhstan (2017), Brazil (2017), Honduras (2017) and Belarus (2018) following suit. Because the EU acceptance of the convention applies in 27 EU countries, the convention applies in 37 countries worldwide.

Three forms of maintenance form the core of the convention and are defined in article 2:

A country can further declare to apply the convention to other forms of family maintenance: "any maintenance obligation arising from a family relationship, parentage, marriage or affinity, including in particular obligations in respect of vulnerable persons". Such a wider scope is only valid between two member states if both have an increase to scope.

States Parties are to establish a Central Authority for the convention. The Authority in the country of residence of the requester is the authority through which requests for enforcement of judicial or administrative decistions can be made, while the authority in the country to which the request is lodged should provide further -free- help with the application. As the convention is based on enforcement of judicial decisions, the merit of the decision itself may not be taken into account. The request should include the decision as well as proof that the "respondent had proper notice of the proceedings and an opportunity to be heard, or that the respondent had proper notice of the decision and the opportunity to challenge or appeal it on fact and law". The receiving authority is required to actively enforce the decisions by means which are at least as effective as those used when enforcing decisions within that country. They may include withholding of wages or social security payments or garnishments from bank accounts. Also public bodies may request enforcement if they are eligible to receive payments because one of the parties has made a claim to public funds.