LIST OF THE HAGUE APOSTILLE CONVENTION MEMBERS

The Hague Apostille Convention is also known as the Hague Convention of 5 October 1961, was formed to eliminate the old tedious and costly way of legalising foreign public documents and was replaced with one single formality of apostilling public documents. With this put in place all signatory states of the Hague Apostille Convention were able to legally use their public documents in other contracting countries. Each contracting state chooses a Competent Authority within their country to be the legal body responsible for issuing the apostille certificate. In South Africa, the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) and the South African High Court are the Competent Authorities responsible for issuing Apostille certificates. Currently, there are 120 contracting states and 91 members. Below is a list of the Hague Apostille Convention Members and when they joined.

List of the Hague Apostille Convention Members

 

 

Continent	Contracting Party	Entry Into Force
Europe	Albania	4-June-2002
	Andorra	11-June-2015
	Austria	15-July-1955
	Belarus	12-July-2001
	Belgium	15-July-1955
	Bosnia and Herzegovina	7-June-2001
	Bulgaria	22-April-1999
	Croatia	12-June-1995
	Cyprus	8-October-1984
	Czech Republic	28-January-1993
	Denmark	15-July-1955
	Estonia	13-May-1998
	European Union	3-April-2007
	Finland	2-December-1955
	France	20-April-1964
	Germany	14-December-1955
	Greece	26-August-1955
	Hungary	6-January-1987
	Iceland	14-November-2003
	Ireland	26-August-1955
	Italy	26-June-1957
	Latvia	11-August-1992
	Lithuania	23-October-2001
	Luxembourg	12-March-1956
	Malta	30-January-1995
	Monaco	8-August-1996
	Montenegro	1-March-2007
	Netherlands	15-July-1955
	Norway	15-July-1955
	Poland	29-May-1984
	Portugal	15-July-1955
	Republic of Moldova	16-March-2016
	Romania	10-April-1991
	Serbia	26-April-2001
	Slovakia	26-April-1993
	Slovenia	18-June-1992
	Spain	15-July-1955
	Sweden	15-July-1955
	Switzerland	6-May-1957
	Ukraine	3-December-2003
	United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland	15-July-1955
South America	Argentina	28-April-1972
	Brazil	23-February-2001
	Chile	25-April-1986
	Ecuador	2-November-2007
	Paraguay	28-June-2005
	Peru	29-January-2001
	Suriname	7-October-1977
	Uruguay	27-July-1983
	Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of)	25-July-1979
	El Salvador	20-March-2023
Asia	Armenia	28-April-2015
	Indonesia	3-July-2021
	Israel	24-September-1964
	Japan	27-June-1957
	Jordan	13-June-2001
	Pakistan	8-July-2022
	Malaysia	2-October-2002
	Mongolia	15-July-1955
	Singapore	16-September-2022
	Philippines	14-July-2010
	Republic of Korea	20-August-1997
	Saudi Arabia	19-October-2016
	Singapore	9-April-2014
	India	13-March-2008
	Uzbekistan	4-March-2020
	Viet Nam	10-April-2013
	Sri Lanka	27-September-2001
	Suriname	7-October-1977
	China	7-November-2023
Oceania	New Zealand	5-February-2002
	Australia	1-November-1973
Europe/Asia	Azerbaijan	29-July-2014
	Georgia	28-May-2001
	Kazakhstan	14-June-2017
	Türkiye	26-August-1955
	Russian Federation	6-December-2001
North America	Canada	7-October-1968
	Costa Rica	27-January-2011
	Dominican Republic	4-March-2020
	El Salvador	2-March-2022
	Jamaica	3-July-2021
	Honduras	9-September-2021
	Mexico	18-March-1986
	Nicaragua	21-October-2020
	Panama	29-May-2002
	United States of America	15-October-1964
Africa	Burkina Faso	16-October-2013
	Egypt	24-April-1961
	Mauritius	19-January-2011
	Botswana	1-March-2023
	Morocco	6-September-1993
	Namibia	19-January-2021
	South Africa	14-February-2002
	Tunisia	4-November-2014
	Senegal	8-July-2022
	Zambia	17-May-2013
	Senegal	23-March-2023

How to become a member of the Hague Apostille Convention?

Depositing the instrument of accession

 

• Any country wishing to join the Hague Apostille Convention, is called an acceding  State. The acceding State must send their instrument of accession to the Depository of the Convention, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Netherlands.
• The instrument of the accession may be delivered personally or sent through the mail. It should either be in French or English or translated into either one of these languages.
• The acceding State shall notify the Depositary of the chosen Competent Authority of the accession, in either English or French (In South Africa the Competent Authority is the South African High Court and DIRCO). 
• If a new Competent Authority is appointed or an old one no longer serves as a Competent Authority, the Depository should be notified.
• Additionally, States must inform the Permanent Bureau of any designations (by email to secretariat@hcch.net) in order for this information to be posted on the website’s apostille section. Where applicable, the URL of the e-Register should also be included in the correspondence sent to the Permanent Bureau(s).

Objections to accessions and how to avoid them

• When a state delivers their instrument of accession with the depository, it’s not granted membership immediately after the instrument of accession has been delivered, all contracting states are then notified and are given an objection period of six months.
• During this period, objections may be raised by contracting States, who are against the accession. A State does not need to give a reason for raising an objection. The depository must be notified of this objection, in turn, all contracting States are notified by the depository about the objection. Though contracting states are only notified of objection after the six-months objection period.
• If a contracting State raises an objection to an acceding State, it means that the Convention won’t enter into effect for both the contracting state that raised an objection and the acceding state. Contracting States are given six months to object, if a contracting State objects after the six-month period the objection will have no effect whatsoever.
• If a State wants to withdraw their objection, they can do so anytime by notifying the depository. Once the depository receives the notification to withdraw, the convention will immediately come into effect between the contracting State and acceding State.
• Objections to acceding states are usually slim, but to minimise the chances of objections, acceding states can do the following:

• • • Choose Competent Authorities who are reliable and willing to meet the demands of issuing Apostilles.
    • The acceding State should provide all details, including contact details about the Competent Bodies.
    • The accession should also be published on relevant government websites.
    • All embassies and consulates of the acceding State in other countries should be informed once the Convention comes into effect so that they should know that there is no need to legalise public documents anymore to be used abroad unless its legalisation outside of Apostilling. 
    • Consider implementing the e-APP, specifically the e-Register component.  

The entry into force of the Convention

 

• From here on out, the Convention comes into effect between the contracting States who did not raise an objection and the acceding State.
• In order for the Convention to enter into effect with a contracting State that has withdrawn its objection, the depository should be notified first. 
• Consequently, Contracting States are not required to expressly accept an accession if they do not want to object to it. The Convention shall become effective between a Contracting State and the newly acceding State if no objection has been made by the Contracting Party within the six-month objection period.

Global Apostille

Global Apostille is a Pretoria-based legalisation agency that assists corporations and individuals  in getting apostilles and embassy legalization services in South Africa for documents to be used abroad. We make the legalization and apostille of South African documents simple for our clients.

Understanding that document authentication can be challenging and time-consuming, our main aim is to ensure our clients feel at ease. Our goal is to lessen this load by offering top-notch apostilling services at reasonable rates, without any hidden charges.

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