On March 23, 2025, the Convention on the International Recovery of Child Support and Other Forms of Family Maintenance (known as the Child Support Convention) entered into force in the Dominican Republic. As of May 2025, the European Union and 54 countries, including the United States, are contracting parties to this agreement.
The convention’s goal is to facilitate the cross-border recovery of child support payments through a system of effective cooperation between the signatory parties. The parties commit to provide most services and legal assistance at no cost, simplified methods for recognizing and enforcing support decisions, and prompt administrative procedures.
More specifically, the convention establishes a system of central authorities in signatory parties and imposes certain duties on these authorities, including the following:
- Cooperating with each other
- Transmitting and receiving applications for recognition, enforcement, establishment, or modification of relevant decisions
- Initiating or facilitating pertinent proceedings
- Assisting in locating debtors or creditors and gathering information on their resources
- Fostering amicable solutions
- Facilitating enforcement
- Collecting and transmitting maintenance payments
- Assisting in determining parentage
There are a number of grounds for contracting parties to recognize and enforce the support decisions of other contracting parties under the convention, such as the usual residence of either the respondent or the plaintiff in the country where proceedings are initiated.
Although the convention focuses on child support cases, requests for the recognition and enforcement of spousal support also fall within its scope when such applications are made in conjunction with a claim for child support.
The Hague Conference’s website contains a child support section that provides resources addressing several aspects of the convention, including a list of central authorities of contracting parties, country profiles, explanatory documents, practical handbooks, and information on electronic case management.
The Child Support Convention became effective in the Dominican Republic after its instrument of accession was deposited at the Hague Conference on Private International Law, the convention’s administrative body.
Gustavo Guerra, Law Library of Congress
May 30, 2025
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