The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), in conjunction with the Permanent Bureau of the Hague Conference on Private International Law (HCCH), will host the 4th Asia-Pacific Regional Conference (AP4) in Makati City from October 26 to 28 this year. The Conference is cohosted by the Philippine Judicial Academy and the University of the Philippines’ College of Law in commemoration of the latter’s centennial anniversary.
“We are pleased to host this important conference. It will enable the Philippines to establish valuable networks given its recent membership in the HCCH and to contribute to the progressive unification of the rules of private international law,‘’ said Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert F. del Rosario. The conference will focus on legal cooperation and litigation and family law, especially protection of children.
Representatives—senior officials from foreign affairs and justice departments, judiciary, academe, and non-governmental organizations—from 20 to 25 countries are expected to attend. Speakers include Secretary del Rosario, HCCH Secretary General Hans van Loon, Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Secretary Corazon Soliman, and various experts on HCCH conventions and international law.
The Philippines became a member of the Hague Conference on Private International Law in June last year. It has 71 member-states and is based in The Hague, Netherlands. It is signatory to one of HCCH’s conventions, the Inter-country Adoption Convention, and is considering accession to other conventions. Through the Inter-country Adoption Board, the Philippines is considered to have one of the “best practices” in the implementation of the Inter-country Adoption Convention.
Specific conventions to be discussed include the Convention on the Protection of Children and Cooperation in Respect of the Inter-country Adoption (Inter-country Adoption Convention), Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents (Apostille Convention), Hague Conventions on the Service Abroad of Judicial and Extrajudicial Documents in Civil or Commercial Matters, as well as those on International Access to Justice, Choice of Court Agreements, Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, Cooperation in Respect of Parental Responsibility and Measures for the Protection of Children, and on the International Recovery of Child Support and Other Forms of Family Maintenance.
There will also be presentations on private international law issues in the Asia-Pacific region, the Permanent Bureau’s ongoing work on choice of law in international contracts, and the private international law aspects of (economic) migration. “The work of the HCCH on migration, in particular, reinforces our country’s efforts in promoting the rights and welfare of OFWs,” DFA Assistant Secretary for Legal Affairs J. Eduardo Malaya said.
Previous HCCH regional conferences were held in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China in 2008, Australia in 2007 and Malaysia in 2005.
Interested individuals may visit the conference website, http://law.upd.edu.ph/iils_
