In the late hours last night before adjourning for its pre-election break, the Senate gave its advice and consent to ratification of the 2007 Hague Child Support Convention. Responding to an objection by Senator Jim DeMint, the resolution of ratification was amended to incorporate an additional understanding, which reads: “The United States is not a party to the Convention on the Rights of the Child and understands that a mention of the Convention in the preamble of this Treaty does not create any obligations and does not affect or enhance the status of the Convention as a matter of the United States or international law.”
Before the United States can ratify the Convention, Congress will have to enact implementing legislation; that legislation will require the states to enact the 2008 version of the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act (UIFSA). All states have some version of UIFSA in force; Maine, North Dakota and Nevada have already enacted UIFSA 2008. (Previous posts have included links to the Senate and Treaty documents and the new version of UIFSA.)