On 12 and 13 May 2026, the 14th International Forum on the electronic Apostille (e-APP Forum) was held in Marrakech, Kingdom of Morocco. The Forum was organised by the Hague Conference on Private International Law (HCCH), the HCCH Regional Office for Africa and the Arab World, and the Ministry of Justice of the Kingdom of Morocco.
𝐀 𝐅𝐨𝐫𝐮𝐦 𝐟𝐨𝐫 e𝐱𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 m𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐳𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐟 l𝐞𝐠𝐚𝐥 𝐚𝐧𝐝 a𝐝𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 s𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐜𝐞𝐬
Chaired by the Minister of Justice, Mr Abdellatif OUAHBI, and attended by Professor Mayatta Ndiaye MBAYE, Permanent Secretary of OHADA, the Forum provided an opportunity, through extensive exchanges of experiences involving participants from all continents, to review the status of the adoption and use of the electronic Apostille (e-Apostille), assess its positive impact on the circulation of public documents, evaluate its implications for the business environment as well as for the mobility of persons, goods and capital, and share approaches and tools aimed at strengthening the deployment of the e-Apostille.
As a pioneering initiative on the African continent, the Forum also highlighted the limited uptake of the 1961 Convention by African States, at a time when the needs of businesses and populations are steadily increasing.
𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐀𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐞 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: a t𝐨𝐨𝐥 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 s𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐟 a𝐝𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 p𝐫𝐨𝐜𝐞𝐝𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐬
By way of reminder, the Convention of 5 October 1961 abolished the traditional and costly requirement of legalisation of public documents by facilitating their use abroad (1961 HCCH Apostille Convention), replacing it with the issuance of a single Apostille certificate delivered by a competent authority in the place where the document originates. In this regard, an electronic Apostille is an official Apostille created and signed electronically and associated with a secure digital certificate.
𝐎𝐇𝐀𝐃𝐀 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐦𝐬 𝐈𝐭𝐬 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐢𝐭𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐄𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐜 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐚𝐧 𝐈𝐦𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐝 𝐁𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐄𝐧𝐯𝐢𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭
Guided by the objective of facilitating the mobility of economic operators and supporting sub-regional and continental economic integration, particularly within the framework of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), OHADA, through its participation in the Forum, continues to pursue its efforts towards improving the business climate.
On the sidelines of the Forum, the Permanent Secretary of OHADA held working sessions with the Secretary General of the HCCH, the Representative of the HCCH Regional Office for Africa and the Arab World, the Director of Supervision of the Central Bank of Morocco, and the President of the National Council of Notaries of Morocco
