Commonwealth Numbered Regulations - Explanatory Statements

[Index] [Search] [Download] [Related Items] [Help]

FAMILY LAW (CHILD ABDUCTION CONVENTION) REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT) 1997 NO.347

STATUTORY RULES 1997 No. 347

Issued by the Authority of the Attorney-General

Family Law Act 1975

Family Law (Child Abduction Convention) Regulations (Amendment)

Subsection 125(1) of the Family Law Act 1975 (the Act) empowers the Governor-General to make regulations prescribing all matters necessary to be prescribed for the purposes of the Act.

Section 111B of the Act provides that the regulations may make such provision as is necessary to enable Australia to perform its obligations, or obtain any advantage or, benefit, under the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction (the Convention).

The objects of the Convention are to secure the prompt return of children wrongfully removed to or retained in any Convention country, and to ensure that rights of custody and access to children under the laws of a Convention country are effectively respected in the other Convention countries.

Australia signed and ratified the Convention on 25 October 1986, and the Convention came into force for Australia on 1 January 1987.

The purpose of the Regulations is to add South Africa and Georgia to the list of convention countries in Schedule 2 of the Family Law (Child Abduction Convention) Regulations as between Australia and which the Convention has entered into force. Australia officially accepted the accessions of South Africa and Georgia to the Convention on 31 October 1997. Therefore, in accordance with Article 38 of the Convention, the Convention will enter into force between Australia and these acceding countries on 1 January 1998.

Details of the Regulations are as follows:

Regulation 1 is formal.

Regulation 2 amends Schedule 2 of the Regulations to insert details relating to South Africa and Georgia, including the provisions of the Convention in respect of which either country has made reservations. South Africa has entered reservations under Article 24 of the Convention objecting to the use of French in communications to its Central Authority and under Article 26 (third paragraph) of the Convention excluding its liability for legal costs arising from court proceedings except insofar as those costs may be covered by its legal aid system.

The Regulations commenced on gazettal.

Authority: Section 125 of the Family Law Act 1975.