# International Commission on Civil Status

The International Commission on Civil Status, or ICCS (French: Commission internationale de l'état civil, or CIEC), is an intergovernmental organisation whose aim is to promote international cooperation in civil status matters and to improve the functioning of national civil status services. It was provisionally founded in September 1948 in Amsterdam, Netherlands, and officially recognised by an exchange of letters in December 1949 and two protocols in 1950 and 1952. The organisation is seated in Strasbourg, France, and its official language is French.

## Purpose

Founded after World War II in the context of millions of refugees, missing and displaced people, the organisation's aim was to facilitate the cooperation between states in establishing, recognising and validating civil status documents, also known as vital records, such as birth, marriage and death certificates. It did so by drafting international treaties such as the Convention on the issue of multilingual extracts from civil status records, which provides standard multilingual formats of vital records, allowing their international acceptance without the need for translation or legalisation. Later conventions drafted by the ICCS include the Convention on the recognition of decisions recording a sex reassignment.

## Members

The ICCS was created by five founding member states in 1948. In 1952, a protocol opened the organisation to accession by any state. By 1999, 11 more states had acceded to the ICCS, reaching a peak of 16 member states. After 2007, only one more state acceded and 12 states left the organisation, resulting in only five member states by 2022. In 2024, the Francophone Notary Association, representing 28 states, joined the organisation as a non-state member.
| Member state | Ratification | Start of membership | Renunciation | End of membership |
| Austria | 14 September 1961 | 14 October 1961 | 8 October 2007 | 8 April 2008 |
| Belgium | 25 September 1950 | 1 October 1950 | – | – |
| Croatia | 25 March 1999 | 24 April 1999 | 21 July 2014 | 21 January 2015 |
| France | 25 September 1950 | 1 October 1950 | 17 May 2019 | 17 November 2019 |
| Germany | 27 September 1956 | 27 October 1956 | 31 December 2014 | 30 June 2015 |
| Greece | 3 September 1959 | 3 October 1959 | 30 June 2021 | 30 December 2021 |
| Hungary | 15 September 1999 | 15 October 1999 | 6 June 2012 | 6 December 2012 |
| Italy | 4 September 1958 | 4 October 1958 | 2 April 2014 | 2 October 2014 |
| Luxembourg | 25 September 1950 | 1 October 1950 | – | – |
| Mexico | 15 September 2010 | 15 October 2010 | 15 June 2017 | 15 December 2017 |
| Netherlands | 25 September 1950 | 1 October 1950 | 15 November 2017 | 15 May 2018 |
| Poland | 9 September 1998 | 9 October 1998 | 14 June 2017 | 14 December 2017 |
| Portugal | 13 September 1973 | 13 October 1973 | 10 July 2014 | 10 January 2015 |
| Spain | 13 September 1974 | 13 October 1974 | – | – |
| Switzerland | 25 September 1950 | 1 October 1950 | – | – |
| Turkey | 24 September 1953 | 23 December 1953 | – | – |
| United Kingdom | 11 September 1996 | 11 October 1996 | 22 August 2013 | 22 February 2014 |
Several states are observers of the organisation:
* Cyprus (from 24 March 1999)
* Holy See (lifetime)
* Lithuania (from 23 March 1994)
* Moldova (from 28 March 2006)
* Romania (from 9 September 2008)
* Slovenia (from 27 March 1996)
* Sweden (lifetime)