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| Entry into force: | 7 August 1924, in accordance with article 11. |
| Registration: | 7 August 1924, No. 6851. |
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| Afghanistan | (May 10th, 1937 a) |
| Albania | (October 13th, 1924) |
| Austria | (January 12th, 1925) |
| Belgium | (July 31st, 1926) |
| Includes also the Belgian Congo and the mandated territory of Rwanda-Urundi. | |
| Brazil | (September 19th, 1931) |
| Great Britain | (December 11th, 1925) |
| and Northern Ireland2 | |
| Does not include any of the Colonies, Overseas Possessions, Protectorates or Territories under His Britannic Majesty's sovereignty or authority. | |
| Newfoundland | (December 31st, 1925 a) |
| Southern Rhodesia | (December 31st, 1925 a) |
| Barbados, Basutoland, Bechuanaland, British Honduras, British Solomon Islands Protectorate, Ceylon, Cyprus, Fiji, Gambia (Colony and Protectorate), Gibraltar, Gilbert and Ellice Islands, Gold Coast, Hong-Kong, Kenya (Colony and Protectorate), Leeward Islands, Malay States [(a) Federated Malay States; (b) Non-Federated Malay States: Brunei, Johore, Kedah, Kelantan, Trengganu], Malta, Mauritius, Nigeria [(a) Colony, (b) Protectorate, (c) Cameroons under British Mandate], Northern Rhodesia, Nyasaland, Seychelles, Sierra Leone (Colony and Protectorate), Somaliland, Straits Settlements, Swaziland, Tanganyika Territory, Trinidad and Tobago, Uganda, Windward Islands, Zanzibar | (November 3rd, 1926 a) |
| Bahamas, Bermuda, Falkland Islands and Dependencies, Palestine, St. Helena, Trans-Jordan | (May 23rd, 1927 a) |
| Jamaica | (August 22nd, 1927 a) |
| British Guiana | (September 23rd, 1929 a) |
| Burma3 | |
| Canada | (May 23rd, 1924 a) |
| Australia (including the territories of Papua and Norfolk Island and the mandated territories of New Guinea and Nauru) | (June 29th, 1935 a) |
| New Zealand, including the mandated territory of Western Samoa | (December 11th, 1925) |
| Union of South Africa, including the mandated territory of South West Africa | (Dec. 11th, 1925) |
| Ireland | (September 15th, 1930) |
| India | (December 11th, 1925) |
| Bulgaria | (July 1st, 1924) |
| China4 | (February 24th, 1926) |
| Colombia | (November 8th, 1934) |
| Cuba | (September 20th, 1934) |
| Czechoslovakia5 | (April 11th, 1927) |
| Denmark6 | (May 6th, 1930) |
| With regard to Article IV, see also Article I. The acts mentioned in Article I are punishable under the rules of Danish law only if they fall within the provisions of Article 184 of the Danish Penal Code, which inflicts penalties upon any person publishing obscene writings, or placing on sale, distributing, or otherwise circulating or publicly exposing obscene images. Further, it is to be observed that the Danish legislation relating to the Press contains special provisions on the subject of the persons who may be prosecuted for Press offences. The latter provisions apply to the acts covered by Article 184 in so far as these acts can be considered as Press offences. The modification of Danish legislation on these points must await the revision of the Danish Penal Code, which is likely to be effected in the near future. | |
| Egypt | (October 29th, 1924 a) |
| Estonia | (March 10th, 1936 a) |
| Finland | (June 29th, 1925) |
| France | (January 16th, 1940) |
| The French Government does not assume any obligation as regards its colonies or Protectorates or the Territories placed under its mandate. | |
| Morocco | (May 7th, 1940 a) |
| Germany | (May 11th, 1925) |
| Greece | (October 9th, 1929) |
| Guatemala | (October 25th, 1933 a) |
| Hungary | (February 12th, 1929) |
| Iran | (September 28th, 1932) |
| Iraq | (April 26th, 1929 a) |
| Italy | (July 8th, 1924) |
| Japan7 | (May 13th, 1936) |
| The provisions of Article 15 of the Convention are in no way derogatory to the acts of the Japanese judicial authorities in the application of Japanese laws and decrees. | |
| Latvia | (October 7th, 1925) |
| Luxembourg8 | (August 10th, 1927) |
| Subject to reservation "that, in the application of the penal clauses of the Convention, the Luxembourg authorities will observe the closing paragraph of Article 24 of the Constitution of the Grand-Duchy, which provides that proceedings may not be taken against the publisher, printer or distributor if the author is known and if he is a Luxembourg subject residing in the Grand-Duchy". | |
| San Marino | (April 21st, 1926 a) |
| Monaco | (May 11th, 1925) |
| Netherlands9 | (September 13th, 1927) |
| (including Netherlands Indies, Surinam and Curaçao) | |
| Norway | (May 8th, 1929 a) |
| Paraguay | (October 21st, 1933 a) |
| Poland | (March 8th, 1927) |
| Portugal | (October 4th, 1927) |
| Romania | (June 7th, 1926) |
| Salvador | (July 2nd, 1937) |
| Spain | (December 19th, 1924) |
| Switzerland | (January 20th, 1926) |
| Thailand | (July 28th, 1924) |
| The Thai Government reserve full right to enforce the provisions of the present Convention against foreigners in Thailand in accordance with the principles prevailing for applying Thai legislation to such foreigners. | |
| Turkey | (September 12th, 1929) |
| Union of Soviet Socialist Republics | (July 8th, 1935 a) |
| Yugoslavia (former)10 | (May 2nd, 1929) |
Argentine Republic (a) | Costa Rica | Honduras | Lithuania | Panama | Peru (a) | Uruguay | |
| Participant2,11,12 | Accession (a), Succession (d) |
| Czech Republic5 | 30 Dec 1993 d |
| Denmark6 | [21 Nov 1949 a] |
| Fiji | 1 Nov 1971 d |
| Mexico | 9 Jan 1948 a |
| Slovakia5 | 28 May 1993 d |
| Solomon Islands | 3 Sep 1981 d |
| Zimbabwe | 1 Dec 1998 d |
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1. See League of Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 27, p. 213.
2. The Secretary-General, received on 6 and 10 June 1997 communications regarding the status of Hong Kong from China and the United Kingdom of Great Brtiain and Northern Ireland (see also note 2 under "China" and note 2 under "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland" in the "Historical Information" section in the front matter of this volume). Upon resuming the exercise of sovereignty over Hong Kong, China notified the Secretary-General that the Convention will also apply to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region
In addition, the communication made by the Government of China contained the following reservation:
[The Government of China] will not be bound by the provisions of article15 of the [said Convention].
3. See note 1 under "Myanmar" in the "Historical Information" section in the front matter of this volume.
4. See note concerning signatures, ratifications, accessions, etc., on behalf of China (note 1 under "China" in the "Historical Information" section in the front matter of this volume).
5. See note 1 under "Czech Republic" and note 1 under "Slovakia" in the "Historical Information" section in the front matter of this volume
6. A notification of denunciation was received on 16 August 1967. In communicating this notification, the Government of Denmark has informed the Secretary-General that the denunciation was intended to apply also in relation to the States parties to the 1923 Convention (chapter VIII.3) which had not yet become parties to the Protocol of 12 November 1947 amending the said Convention (chapter VIII.1). The denunciation took effect on 16 August 1968.
7. By a communication dated February 14th, 1936, the Japanese Government withdrew the declaration regarding Taiwan, Chosen, the leased territory of Kwantung, Karafuto and the territories under Japanese mandate, expressed at the time of signing the Convention. For the text of that declaration, see League of Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 27, p. 232.
8. This ratification, given subject to reservation, has been submitted to the signatory States for acceptance.
9. On 30 July 1985, the Secretary-General received from the Government of the Netherlands a notification of denunciation of the said Protocol and Convention. The notification specifies that the denunciation shall apply in respect of the Kingdom in Europe only and that the Protocol and the Convention will therefore remain in force in the Netherlands Antilles. The notification also indicated that the reason for the denunciation is the following:
". . . under the Act of 3 July 1985 (Bulletin of Acts, Orders and Decrees No. 385) the provisions of the Dutch Criminal Code were amended in such a way that it is no longer possible for the Netherlands to comply fully with the international obligations it assumed under the Convention. Article I of the Convention contains - inter alia - the obligation to make it a punishable offence to make, produce or have in possession, to import, convey or export obscene publications or any other obscene objects for the purposes of distribution or public exhibition.
"The new provisions of the Dutch Criminal Code fulfill this requirement only with regard to the portrayal of - or to any medium of information which portrays - sexual activity involving persons under the age of sixteen (i.e. child pornography). As regards the other forms of pornography, the shop windows, to send such images or objects unsolicited through the mail or to supply, offer or show them to children. Since the Convention does not contain any provision which would allow the Netherlands to make punishable only those offences included in the amended Criminal Code, the Government of the Kingdom of the Netherlands has no other choice than to denounce the Convention for the Netherlands."
10. See note 1 under "Bosnia and Herzegovina", "Croatia", "former Yugoslavia", "Slovenia", "The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia" and "Yugoslavia" in the "Historical Information" section in the front matter of this volume.
11. In a communication received by the Secretary-General on 21 February 1974, the Government of the German Democratic Republic stated that [it] had declared the reapplication of the Convention as from 18 December 1958. See also note 2 under "Germany" in the "Historical Information" section in the front matter of this volume.
12. In a notification received on 25 January 1974, the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany denounced the Convention. The denunciation was accompanied by the following declaration:
Under the Fourth Law for the Reform of Criminal Law, Section 184 of the German Criminal Code as amended by Article 1 of this Law, departs in certain respects from the rules laid down in the International Convention of 12 September 1923 for the Suppression of the Circulation of and Traffic in Obscene Publications. The Government of the Federal Republic of Germany found it necessary, therefore, to denounce this International Convention.
In its original version Section 184 of the Criminal Code contained a general prohibition to produce and circulate obscene publications. The newly adopted paragraphs of that Section, which will enter into force 14 months after the promulgation of the Fourth Law of 25 November 1973 for the Reform of Criminal Law, contain the following provisions:
1. It is prohibited to make or produce and to distribute sadistic, pedophilic and sodomitic publications of a pornographic nature.
2. It continues to be prohibited to show pornographic motion pictures in public cinemas.
3. In respect of other pornographic publications, the following rules are upheld:
Protection of the general public (e.g. the exhibition of pornographic publications is prohibited), protection of persons who do not wish to be confronted with pornography (it is forbidden to send unsolicited pornographic publications), and protection of youth (to protect the young, certain marketing methods such as mail order trade are prohibited; in addition, the Law places a total ban on advertising pornographic publications).
See note 2 under "Germany" in the "Historical Information" section in the front matter of this volume.