Instruments of acceptance, ratification and accession deposited during the Council on General Affairs and Policy of the Conference
At a ceremony on the grounds of the Peace Palace on 10 April 2013, the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam became the 73rd Member of the Hague Conference on Private International Law after its Vice-Minister of Justice, Mr Lien Hoang The, deposited the instrument of acceptance of the Organisation's Statute. The ceremony, part of the annual meeting of the Hague Conference's Council on General Affairs and Policy from 9 to 11 April, also featured Serbia's ratification by Mr Cedomic Backovic, Deputy Minister of Justice, of the Hague Protocol of 23 November 2007 on the Law Applicable to Maintenance Obligations as well as the accession of Colombia to the Hague Convention of 15 November 1965 on the Service Abroad of Judicial and Extrajudicial Documents in Civil or Commercial Matters by its Ambassador to the Kingdom of the Netherlands, H.E. Eduardo Pizarro Leongómez.
Serbia’s ratification is the second for the 2007 Protocol, following the ratification of the European Union on 8 April 2010. As a result of Serbia’s ratification, the Protocol will enter into force on 1 August 2013 in the 25 European Union Member States, bound by the European Union’s ratification, as well as in Serbia.