An intercountry adoption file moves between two Central Authorities: the one in the child’s State and the one in the State where the adoptive parents live. The instrument is the Hague Convention of 29 May 1993 on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption, in force for Türkiye since 1 September 2004 after approval by Law No. 5049 (Official Gazette 20 January 2004, No. 25352). Lawyers used to the language articles of the service and evidence conventions are often surprised by this one, because it makes translation conditional. This page follows the documents and the translation rule; the adoption itself and the eligibility of applicants are not assessed here.
The Central Authority is not the Ministry of Justice
In most Hague Conventions to which Türkiye is a party the Central Authority is the Ministry of Justice. Here it is not. The HCCH record names the Ministry of Family and Social Services, Directorate General of Child Services, in Ankara, and the same unit is the competent authority that issues the Article 23 certificate confirming that an adoption was made in accordance with the Convention. The record gives English and Turkish as the preferred languages of communication. According to the Ministry’s own information, an applicant living abroad applies to the intercountry adoption Central Authority of the country of residence, so the file reaches the Turkish authority through that authority rather than directly.
Article 34: the State of destination decides
The Convention has one translation provision. If the competent authority of the State of destination of a document so requests, a translation certified as being in conformity with the original is furnished. Translation is therefore not automatic: the decision belongs to the authority that receives the document. The direction of travel splits the rule in two. For a document leaving Türkiye, the foreign Central Authority decides whether it wants a translation; for a document arriving in Türkiye, the Turkish competent authority decides. The Convention does not list which documents are covered, because the scope is set by the request itself.
Certified, but by whom
Article 34 asks for a translation certified as being in conformity with the original and stops there. No sworn translator, notary or consular officer is named, so which certification satisfies the request is a matter for the authority that made it. The certification of a translation prepared abroad follows what the Turkish authority asks for, and the certification of one prepared in Türkiye follows what the foreign authority asks for.
Who pays
The same Article deals with cost: unless otherwise provided, the costs of the translation are borne by the prospective adoptive parents. The provision does not place the cost on the State or on the Central Authority, and the words “unless otherwise provided” leave room for another arrangement. No amounts appear on this site; what matters at the start of a file is knowing on whose side the cost falls.
No reservations, so no language declaration
Article 40 provides that no reservation to the Convention is permitted. No Contracting State can therefore change Article 34 by a language reservation of the kind Türkiye entered under the 1996 Child Protection Convention, and the HCCH status table shows no declaration or reservation on the Turkish row. Article 34 applies in the same words to every party.
Legalisation: no exemption article here
The 1996 Child Protection Convention exempts documents forwarded or delivered under it from legalisation or any analogous formality (Article 43). The full text of the 1993 Convention contains no comparable exemption, so whether a document in an adoption file has to carry a certification of the original is left to the law of the States concerned and to the 1961 Convention on foreign public documents. The certification of the original and the certification of the translation remain two separate layers, and Article 34 concerns only the second.
Turkish domestic law adds no translation rule
Under Article 15(1) of the Regulation on intermediation activities in the adoption of minors, intercountry adoption procedures are conducted in accordance with the Regulation and the Convention. The Regulation itself contains no provision on translation. On the Turkish side too, the source of the rule is Article 34.
Where the 1993 Convention works
According to the HCCH status table the Convention entered into force for Canada on 1 April 1997, France on 1 October 1998, Germany on 1 March 2002, Luxembourg on 1 November 2002, Switzerland on 1 January 2003, Belgium on 1 September 2005 and the United States on 1 April 2008. Unlike the 1996 Convention, this one binds Canada and the United States. Acte Tercüme translates court decisions, reports and Central Authority correspondence in an adoption file into Turkish, and Turkish documents into English or French when the file leaves Türkiye.