The International Commission on Civil Status, or ICCS (, or CIEC), is an intergovernmental organisation whose aim is to promote international cooperation in civil status matters and to improve the functioning of national civil status services. It was provisionally founded in September 1948 in Amsterdam, Netherlands, and officially recognised by an exchange of letters in December 1949 and two protocols in 1950 and 1952. The organisation is seated in Strasbourg, France, and its official language is French.
Purpose Founded after World War II in the context of millions of refugees, missing and displaced people, the organisation's aim was to facilitate the cooperation between states in establishing, recognising and validating civil status documents, also known as vital records, such as birth, marriage and death certificates. It did so by drafting international treaties such as the Convention on the issue of multilingual extracts from civil status records, which provides standard multilingual formats of vital records, allowing their international acceptance without the need for translation or legalisation. Later conventions drafted by the ICCS include the Convention on the recognition of decisions recording a sex reassignment.
Members
The ICCS was created by five founding member states in 1948. In 1952, a protocol opened the organisation to accession by any state. By 1999, 11 more states had acceded to the ICCS, reaching a peak of 16 member states. After 2007, only one more state acceded and 12 states left the organisation, resulting in only five member states by 2022.
In 2024, the Francophone Notary Association, representing 30 states, joined the organisation as a non-state member. In 2026, the European Association of Registrars, representing nine states, also joined.
Member state Ratification Start of membership Renunciation End of membership 14 September 1961 14 October 1961 8 October 2007 8 April 2008 25 September 1950 1 October 1950 – – 25 March 1999 24 April 1999 21 July 2014 21 January 2015 25 September 1950 1 October 1950 17 May 2019 17 November 2019 27 September 1956 27 October 1956 31 December 2014 30 June 2015 3 September 1959 3 October 1959 30 June 2021 30 December 2021 15 September 1999 15 October 1999 6 June 2012 6 December 2012 4 September 1958 4 October 1958 2 April 2014 2 October 2014 25 September 1950 1 October 1950 – – 15 September 2010 15 October 2010 15 June 2017 15 December 2017 25 September 1950 1 October 1950 15 November 2017 15 May 2018 9 September 1998 9 October 1998 14 June 2017 14 December 2017 13 September 1973 13 October 1973 10 July 2014 10 January 2015 13 September 1974 13 October 1974 – – 25 September 1950 1 October 1950 – – 24 September 1953 23 December 1953 – – 11 September 1996 11 October 1996 22 August 2013 22 February 2014
Several states are observers of the organisation: Central African Republic (from 4 November 2025) Cyprus (from 24 March 1999) Holy See (lifetime) Lithuania (from 23 March 1994) Moldova (from 28 March 2006) Romania (from 9 September 2008) Slovenia (from 27 March 1996) Sweden (lifetime)
See also European institutions in Strasbourg
Notes
References
External links