1976 multilateral convention
The Convention on the issue of multilingual extracts from civil status records () is an international treaty drafted by the International Commission on Civil Status defining a uniform format for birth, marriage and death certificates. Documents issued in this format by a party to the convention are accepted in all other parties without translation or legalisation.
The convention was signed in Vienna on 8 September 1976 by 12 European states, and entered into force on 30 July 1983 after the ratification of five states. As of 2024, the convention is in force in 23 European states and Cape Verde. An updated version of this convention, signed in 2014, remains open for accession by any state.
Provisions.
Upon request, parties to the convention must issue extracts from civil status records in specific formats: "Formule A" for birth certificates, "Formule B" for marriage certificates, and "Formule C" for death certificates. The front of the document must display standard words at least in an official language of the issuing state and in French, and the back of the document must include translations of the words in several additional languages.
Parties must accept documents in these formats issued by each other in the same way as those issued domestically, without the need for translation or legalisation. Any fee for issuing documents in the convention format must not be higher than for those issued in the usual format in the same state.
Parties.
Greece also signed the convention on 8 September 1976, but can no longer ratify it, and may only accede to an updated version of the convention.
Related conventions.
This convention replaced the "Convention on the issue of certain extracts from civil status records for use abroad", signed in Paris on 27 September 1956, which had required the information on the document to be provided in seven languages. The convention of 1976 allowed languages of additional parties, and simplified the presentation by requiring only two languages on the front of the document and the remaining languages on the back. It also harmonised the document format with the "Convention introducing an international family record book", signed in Paris on 12 September 1974. After all parties to the convention of 1956 ratified the convention of 1976, the former ceased to be in force anywhere.
The "Convention on the issue of multilingual and coded certificates and extracts from civil status records", signed in Strasbourg on 14 March 2014, is an update to the convention of 1976, to extend its provisions to documents acknowledging parentage, registered partnership and same-sex marriage, electronic transmission of documents, specify the formats more precisely, and add a verification procedure. After the convention of 2014 entered into force for its first ratifying states in 2022, new states may only accede to this updated convention but no longer to the convention of 1976. However, the convention of 1976 remains in force between its existing parties that have not ratified the updated convention.
The European Union adopted a similar regulation establishing multilingual forms of many types of documents, allowing such documents issued by its member states to be accepted by each other without the need for translation or legalisation.
References.
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