THE Government of Guyana will soon be examining the likelihood of signing onto the Hague Convention, to ensure that justice can be obtained in a wider range of family related issues, when the Family Court commences its work.
Minister of Legal Affairs and Attorney General Basil Williams explained that this move would be a strategic one for Guyana given is geographic location.
“We are a cross border country…our people live in Brazil, Suriname and Venezuela and establish relationships… you find a child comes back to Guyana with its mother (and) usually the husband follows and claims the child was abducted…hosting a Hague Conference on family law which deals with the private international aspects in cross border countries would be beneficial to us,” Minister Williams explained.
Since 1893, the Hague Conference on Private International Law has been a melting pot of different legal traditions which have developed and serviced a number of conventions that respond to the global needs of countries in the areas of International protection of children, family and property relations, international legal co-operation and litigation, and international commercial and finance law.
At a recent meeting with the new European Union Ambassador Jernej Videtic and delegation, Minister Williams discussed the topic of international protection of children, family and property, which addresses areas such as the Protection of Children, Child Abduction, Recovery of Maintenance, Protocol on Maintenance, Maintenance Obligations, Protection of Minors and Adoption.
“I apprised them also of the family court…and on the question of hosting a Hague Conference on family law, which deals with the private international aspects in cross border countries,” Minister Williams said.
The conference on family law can strengthen the justice system by examining ways in which the laws of cross border countries can be unified, by finding internationally-agreed approaches to issues such as jurisdiction of the courts, applicable law, and the recognition and enforcement of judgments.