Conferences

US TREATY RELATIONSHIP WITH AFRICA & OTHER COUNTRIES:

IMPLEMENTING THE 2007 HAGUE CHILD SUPPORT CONVENTION

The Hague Child Support Convention was ratified in 2017 to outline simple, efficient, accessible, and uniform procedures for implementing international child support cases at no cost to United States residents seeking support in other countries through their child support agencies and to ensure effective recovery of child support and other forms of family maintenance. Before recovery money from the non-custodial parent, this convention is designed to minimize reliance on public assistance and ultimately becoming self-sufficient. Both the United States Federal Government and Individual states have entered into an agreement with some nations to facilitate the child support owed to United States residents. “The United States actively participated in the negotiation of the Convention, which was adopted unanimously by the Hague Conference on Private International Law on November 23, 2007.”HAGUE CONVENTION ON THE INTERNATIONAL RECOVERY OF CHILD SUPPORT AND OTHER FORMS OF FAMILY MAINTENANCE (TREATY DOC. 110–21, JANUARY22, 2010, Mr. KERRY”. Of over 170 countries, only about 42 countries have this agreement with the US and out of these countries, only one African country is participating in this agreement.

Children are the future and one of our most precious resources, so it is critical to ensure their financial, emotional, etc., wellbeing. The family & Community have a huge role to play in actualizing this dream. Sometimes one of the parents fail in their duty to uphold this obligation and some communities reinforce this behavior by not taking action. This segment focuses on our collective responsibilities to hold the absentee parent responsible and protect our children. It assesses the implementation of the 2007 Hague Child Support Convention, makes the case that all countries should participate in formalizing this agreement,, and determine solutions to making this happen.

The intent of this conference is to understand why no African country did not participate until now and what it will take to implement this treaty in Africa.