The European Convention on the Legal Status of Children Born out of Wedlock was opened for signature at Strasbourg on 15 October 1975 by the member States of the Council of Europe. The English and French texts are equally authentic, in a single copy deposited in the archives of the Council; the depositary is the Secretary General. It entered into force on 11 August 1978, three months after the third instrument. It is not the European Convention on the Adoption of Children and it is not the Convention on Contact concerning Children.

The preamble notes that many member States have reduced the differences of status as against children born in wedlock and that wide disparities remain. Article 1 requires each Party to ensure that its law conforms to the Convention and to notify the Secretary General of the measures taken. Article 2: maternal affiliation of every child born out of wedlock is based solely on the fact of birth. Article 3: paternal affiliation may be evidenced or established by voluntary recognition or by judicial decision.

Article 4: voluntary recognition of paternity may not be opposed or contested, insofar as internal law provides for those procedures, unless the person seeking to recognise or having recognised the child is not the biological father. Article 5: in actions relating to paternal affiliation, scientific evidence which may help to establish or disprove paternity shall be admissible. The clause states only that the evidence is admissible; it does not describe a method.

Article 6: the father and the mother have the same obligation to maintain the child as if it had been born in wedlock; where a legal obligation to maintain a child born in wedlock falls on certain members of the father’s or the mother’s family, that obligation also applies for the benefit of a child born out of wedlock. Article 7: where affiliation has been established as regards both parents, parental authority may not be attributed automatically to the father alone; there is power to transfer it, and the cases are governed by internal law. Article 8: a parent who does not have parental authority or custody may obtain a right of access to the child in appropriate cases.

Article 9: a child born out of wedlock has the same right of succession in the estate of its father and its mother and of a member of its father’s or mother’s family as if it had been born in wedlock. Article 10: the marriage of the father and the mother confers on the child the legal status of a child born in wedlock.

Article 11: ratification, acceptance or approval by deposit of an instrument with the Secretary General; entry into force three months after the third instrument, and for a later signatory three months after its own instrument. Article 12: after entry into force, the Committee of Ministers may invite a non-member State to accede; accession takes effect three months after deposit. Article 13 allows a State to specify the territories to which the Convention applies and to extend it later, with withdrawal of the declaration by the denunciation procedure.

Article 14: not more than three reservations, only in respect of Articles 2 to 10, each affecting no more than one provision; reservations of a general nature are not permitted. A reservation is valid for five years from entry into force for the Party concerned and may be renewed for successive periods of five years by a declaration made before expiry; it may be withdrawn wholly or in part. Article 15: denunciation takes effect six months after receipt. Article 16 lists the notifications of the Secretary General. The cover shows Strasbourg Cathedral, a landmark of the city where the Convention was opened, not the signing hall.

Sources consulted: European Convention on the Legal Status of Children born out of Wedlock; official text, European Convention on the Legal Status of Children Born out of Wedlock (ETS No. 85).