Supreme Court E-Library
Information At Your Fingertips

November 12, 1947

Note: The Convention was concurred in by the Senate, S.R. No. 99, May 19, 1952. The Philippine instrument of accession was signed by the President, September 28, 1954 and was deposited with the Secretary-General of the UN, September 30, 1954. It entered into force, April 20, 1950 and with respect to the Philippines, November 30, 1954.

Reference: This Convention is also published in 53 UNTS, p. 49.

ARTICLE 1

Whoever, in order to gratify the passions of another person, has procured, enticed or led away even with her consent, a woman or girl of full age for immoral purposes to be carried out in another country, shall be punished, notwithstanding that the various acts constituting the offence may have been committed in different countries.

Attempted offences, and within the legal limits, acts preparatory to the offences in question, shall also be punishable.

For the purposes of the present Article, the term "country" includes the colonies and protectorates of the High Contracting Party concerned, as well as territories under his suzerainty and territories for which a mandate has been entrusted to him.

ARTICLE 2

The High Contracting Parties whose laws are at present inadequate to deal with the offences specified in the preceding Article agree to take the necessary steps to ensure that these offences shall be punished in accordance with their gravity.

ARTICLE 3

The High Contracting Parties undertake to communicate to each other in regard to any person of either sex who has committed or attempted to commit any of the offences referred to in the present Convention or in the Conventions of 1916 and 1921 on the Suppression of the Traffic in Women and Children, the various constituent acts of which were, or were to have been, accomplished in different countries, the following information (or similar information which it may be possible to supply under the laws and regulations of the country concerned):

(a) Records of convictions, together with any useful and available information with regard to the offender, such as his civil status, description, fingerprints, photograph and police record, his methods of operations, etc.

(b) Particulars of any measures of refusal of admission or of expulsion which may have been applied to him.

These documents and information shall be sent direct and without delay to the authorities of the countries concerned in each particular case by the authorities named in Article I of the Agreement concluded in Paris on May 18th, 1904, and, if possible, in all cases when the offence, conviction, refusal or admission or expulsion has been duly established.

ARTICLE 4

If there should arise between the High Contracting Parties a dispute of any kind relating to the interpretation or application of the present Convention or of the Conventions of 1910 and 1921, and if such dispute cannot be satisfactorily settled by diplomacy, it shall be settled in accordance with any applicable agreements in force between the Parties providing for the settlement of international disputes.

In case there is no such agreement in force between the Parties, the dispute shall be referred to arbitration or judicial settlement. In the absence of agreement on the choice of another tribunal, the dispute shall, at the request of any of the Parties, be referred to the International Court of Justice, if all the Parties to the dispute are Parties to the Statute of the International Court of Justice, and if any of the Parties to the dispute is not a Party to the Statute of the International Court of Justice, to an arbitral tribunal constituted in accordance with the Hague Convention of October 18th, 1907, for the Pacific Settlement of International Disputes.

ARTICLE 5

The present Convention, of which the English and French texts are both authoritative shall be this day's date, and shall, until April 1st, 1934, be open for signature on behalf of any Member of the League of Nations, or of any nonmember State which was represented at the Conference which drew up this Convention or to which the Council of the League of Nations shall have communicated a copy of the Convention for this purpose.

ARTICLE 6

The present Convention shall be ratified. As from 1 January 1948 the instruments of ratification shall be transmitted to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, who shall notify their receipt to all Members of the United Nations and to non-member States to which the Secretary-General has communicated a copy of the Convention.

ARTICLE 7

Members of the United Nations may accede to the present Convention. The same applies to non-member States to which the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations may decide officially to communicate the present Convention.

The instrument of accession shall be transmitted to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, who shall notify their receipt to all Members of the United Nations and to non-member States to which the Secretary-General has communicated a copy of the Convention.

ARTICLE 8

The present Convention shall come into force sixty days after the Secretary-General of the League of Nations has received two ratifications or accessions.

It shall be registered by the Secretary-General on the day of its entry into force.

Subsequent ratifications or accessions shall take effect at the end of sixty days after their receipt by the Secretary-General.

ARTICLE 9

The present Convention may be denounced by notification addressed to the Secretary-General of the United Nations. Such denunciation shall take effect one year after its receipt, but only in relation to the High Contracting Party who has notified it.

ARTICLE 10

The Secretary-General of the United Nations shall communicate to all the Members of the United Nations and to the non-member States to which the Secretary-General has communicated a copy of the Convention, the denunciations referred to in Article 9.

Parties to the Agreement as of December 31, l965:
Afghanistan	Madagascar
Algeria	Mexico
Australia	Netherlands
Austria	Nicaragua
Belgium	Niger
Brazil	Norway
Czechoslovakia	Philippines
Finland	Poland
Greece	Rumania
Hungary	Sweden
Ireland	Turkey
Ivory Coast	Union of South Africa
Libya	Union of Soviet Socialist
Luxembourg	Republics