The Convention on the issue of multilingual extracts from civil status records () is an international

treaty A treaty is a formal, legally binding written agreement between sovereign states and/or international organizations that is governed by international law. A treaty may also be known as an international agreement, protocol, covenant, convention ...

drafted by the

International Commission on Civil Status The International Commission on Civil Status, or ICCS (, or CIEC), is an intergovernmental organisation whose aim is to promote international cooperation in civil status matters and to improve the functioning of national civil status services. I ...

defining a uniform format for

birth Birth is the act or process of bearing or bringing forth offspring, also referred to in technical contexts as parturition. In mammals, the process is initiated by hormones which cause the muscular walls of the uterus to contract, expelling the f ...

marriage Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...

and

death certificates A death certificate is either a legal document issued by a medical practitioner which states when a person died, or a document issued by a government civil registration office, that declares the date, location and cause of a person's death, as ...

. Documents issued in this format by a party to the convention are accepted in all other parties without

translation Translation is the communication of the semantics, meaning of a #Source and target languages, source-language text by means of an Dynamic and formal equivalence, equivalent #Source and target languages, target-language text. The English la ...

or legalisation. The convention was signed in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

on 8 September 1976 by 12

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

an states, and entered into force on 30 July 1983 after the ratification of five states. As of 2025, the convention is in force in 23 European states and

Cape Verde Cape Verde or Cabo Verde, officially the Republic of Cabo Verde, is an island country and archipelagic state of West Africa in the central Atlantic Ocean, consisting of ten volcanic islands with a combined land area of about . These islands ...

. The convention 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 certificate A birth certificate is a vital record that documents the Childbirth, birth of a person. The term "birth certificate" can refer to either the original document certifying the circumstances of the birth or to a certified copy of or representation ...

s, ''Formule B'' for

marriage certificate A marriage certificate (colloquially marriage lines) is an official statement that two people are married. In most jurisdictions, a marriage certificate is issued by a government official only after the civil registration of the marriage. In s ...

s, and ''Formule C'' for

death certificate A death certificate is either a legal document issued by a medical practitioner which states when a person died, or a document issued by a government civil registration office, that declares the date, location and cause of a person's death, a ...

s. 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

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

Related conventions

This convention replaced the ''Convention on the issue of certain extracts from civil status records for use abroad'', signed in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

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 joined to 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 Strasbourg ( , ; ; ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est Regions of France, region of Geography of France, eastern France, in the historic region of Alsace. It is the prefecture of the Bas-Rhin Departmen ...

on 14 March 2014, is an update to the convention of 1976, to extend its provisions to documents acknowledging parentage,

registered partnership A civil union (also known as a civil partnership) is a legally recognized arrangement similar to marriage, primarily created to provide legal recognition for same-sex couples. Civil unions grant some or all of the rights of marriage, with chi ...

and

same-sex marriage Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same legal Legal sex and gender, sex. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 38 countries, with a total population of 1.5 ...

, 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, the convention of 1976 does not apply between new states joining the convention of 1976 and parties to the convention of 2014. However, the convention of 1976 remains in force between its parties that have not joined the updated convention, and between these parties who joined before 2022 and parties to the convention of 2014. The

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

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.

Notes

References

{{reflist Human rights instruments Treaties concluded in 1976 Treaties entered into force in 1983 Civil registration and vital statistics Identity documents International Commission on Civil Status treaties Treaties of Austria Treaties of Belgium Treaties of Bosnia and Herzegovina Treaties of Bulgaria Treaties of Cape Verde Treaties of Croatia Treaties of Estonia Treaties of France Treaties of Germany Treaties of Italy Treaties of Lithuania Treaties of Luxembourg Treaties of North Macedonia Treaties of Moldova Treaties of Montenegro Treaties of the Netherlands Treaties of Poland Treaties of Portugal Treaties of Romania Treaties of Serbia Treaties of Serbia and Montenegro Treaties of Slovenia Treaties of Spain Treaties of Switzerland Treaties of Turkey Treaties of Yugoslavia 1976 in Austria

Provisions

Parties

Related conventions

See also

Notes

References