On July 22, 2022, the Hague Conference on Private International Law issued a press release stating that Senegal deposited an instrument of accession to the Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalization for Foreign Public Documents.
In the near future, to certify Senegalese documents, it will be enough to stamp them with an apostille instead of going through the complicated procedure of consular legalization. In addition, the Senegalese authorities will begin to accept on their territory, without additional authentication procedures, foreign documents previously apostilled by the states that issued them.
According to media reports, one of the factors that forced the Senegalese authorities to speed up the decision on the question of accession to the Convention was the presence of a large diaspora of representatives of the local population abroad. According to various estimates, there are currently between 550,000 and 2.5 million Senegalese citizens abroad who are constantly struggling to legalize documents. Today, more than 100,000 immigrants from Senegal live in France alone.
On March 23, 2023, the Apostille Convention for Senegal will come into force.
Since Senegal's accession, 124 countries have signed the Apostille Convention. Although not yet a member of the Hague Conference, Senegal is currently a party to two of the Hague Conventions.
