On March 23, 2023, the Convention of October 5, 1961, abolishing the requirement for legalization of foreign official documents, entered into force for the Republic of Senegal. The corresponding statement is posted on the website of the Hague Conference on Private International Law.
As a result, the apostille will begin to be applied in Senegal from April 1, 2023.
The authorities of Senegal submitted the documents for storage to the Hague Conference in July 2022. The apostille procedure in the republic will be entrusted to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The agency officially commented on the innovation for the media.
"If a birth certificate is issued to a Senegalese person here, in Senegal, and they want to use it abroad, we put the Convention stamp, and the document will not need to be additionally certified in France. I believe that this will save time and money for both Senegalese people who are abroad and for entrepreneurs who want to... go abroad for their business," said the Republic's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Me Aïssata Tall Sall.
She particularly emphasized that none of the countries that ratified the Hague Convention made any reservations when the document entered into force for Senegal.
"This means that all states have confidence in the reliability of Senegal's administration. If we are trusted, then it means that we are considered a serious and trustworthy state... The Apostille Convention is considered one of the most widely applied multilateral agreements in the field of mutual legal assistance," the Minister of Foreign Affairs summed up.
Senegal's accession to the Hague Convention of October 5, 1961, was approved without objection by 121 states. The authorities of three European countries: Austria, Germany, and the Netherlands (including Aruba, Curaçao, and Sint Maarten) have already announced in advance that they will not accept Senegalese apostilles, citing Article 12 of the Convention. For these countries, consular legalization procedure will continue to apply.
According to various estimates, there are currently between 550,000 and 2.5 million Senegalese citizens abroad, who constantly face difficulties due to the need to legalize documents. In France alone, there are more than 100,000 Senegalese expatriates today.
