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2. Convention for the Suppression of the Circulation of, and Traffic in, Obscene Publications, concluded at Geneva on 12 September 1923 and amended by the Protocol signed at Lake Success, New York, on 12 November 1947

 

Entry into force: 2 February 1950 , the date on which the amendments set forth in the annex to the Protocol of 12 November 1947, entered into force in accordance with paragraph 2 of article V of the Protocol.
Registration: 2 February 1950, No. 710.
Status: Parties: 54.
Text: United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 46, p. 201
 

 

PARTICIPANTS


Participant1  Definitive signature of the Protocol, Acceptance of the Protocol, Succession to the Convention and the Protocol  Ratification of the Convention as amended by the Protocol, Accession to the Convention as amended by the Protocol (a), Succession to the Convention as amended by the Protocol (d) 
Afghanistan  12 Nov 1947   
Albania  25 Jul 1949   
Australia  13 Nov 1947   
Austria  4 Aug 1950   
Belarus    8 Sep 1998 d 
Belgium  12 Nov 1947   
Brazil  3 Apr 1950   
Cambodia    30 Mar 1959 a 
Canada  24 Nov 1947   
China2  12 Nov 1947   
Cuba  2 Dec 1983   
Cyprus    16 May 1963 d 
Czech Republic3    30 Dec 1993 d 
Democratic Republic of the Congo    31 May 1962 d 
Denmark4  [21 Nov 1949]   
Egypt  12 Nov 1947   
Fiji  1 Nov 1971   
Finland  6 Jan 1949   
Ghana    7 Apr 1958 d 
Greece  5 Apr 1960   
Guatemala  26 Aug 1949   
Haiti    26 Aug 1953 
Hungary  2 Feb 1950   
India  12 Nov 1947   
Ireland  28 Feb 1952   
Italy  16 Jun 1949   
Jamaica    30 Jul 1964 d 
Jordan    11 May 1959 a 
Lesotho    28 Nov 1975 d 
Luxembourg  14 Mar 1955   
Madagascar    10 Apr 1963 a 
Malawi    22 Jul 1965 a 
Malaysia    21 Aug 1958 d 
Malta    24 Mar 1967 d 
Mauritius    18 Jul 1969 d 
Mexico  4 Feb 1948   
Myanmar  13 May 1949   
Netherlands5  [ 7 Mar 1949]   
New Zealand  28 Oct 1948   
Nigeria    26 Jun 1961 d 
Norway  28 Nov 1947   
Pakistan  12 Nov 1947   
Poland  21 Dec 1950   
Romania  2 Nov 1950   
Russian Federation  18 Dec 1947   
Sierra Leone    13 Mar 1962 d 
Slovakia3    28 May 1993 d 
Solomon Islands    3 Sep 1981 d 
South Africa  12 Nov 1947   
Sri Lanka    15 Apr 1958 a 
Trinidad and Tobago    11 Apr 1966 d 
Turkey  12 Nov 1947   
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland  16 May 1949   
United Republic of Tanzania    28 Nov 1962 a 
Yugoslavia  12 Nov 1947   
Zambia    1 Nov 1974 d 
 

 

NOTES


1. 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 14 in chapter I.2.


2. See note concerning signatures, ratifications, accessions, etc., on behalf of China (note 4 in chapter I.1).


3. Czechoslovakia, by virtue of its definitive signature of the Protocol of 12 November 1947 amending the Convention of 1923, was a participant in the Convention on that same date. See also note 11 in chapter I.2.


4. 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.


5. 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."