“The Republic of Indonesia ratified the Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalization. Accordingly, it will no longer require embassy legalization for categorized as public documents and replacing them with Apostille.”
Public documents that issued or signed in abroad that will be used in other countries is required to get legalized to proof the authenticity of the public documents, which the procedure is quite long. To make the procedure to proof the authenticity of the public documents simple, the Hague Convention of 5 October 1961 has stipulated to abolishing the requirement of legalization for foreign public documents and replaced it with Apostille stamp. The provision of abolishing the legalization is apply to the participating countries of the Convention.
a. Indonesia’s ratification of the Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalization for Foreign Public Documents
Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalization for Foreign Public Documents is also known as The Hague Convention of 5 October 1961 (“the Convention”). The contracting parties of this Convention is a total of 122 (one hundred twenty-two) countries, which Indonesia is one of them.
The Convention simplifies the legalization procedure. As mentioned before, the public documents that are issued or signed in abroad and will be used in other countries it is required to get legalized to prove the authenticity of the documents. The procedure of legalization is quite long; it is required to get notarization, legalized by the Ministry of Justice and/or Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Indonesia Embassy in the country. Nevertheless, with the Convention, the lengthy legalization procedure has been abolished. However, the requirements to prove the public documents’ authenticity were replaced by the Apostille stamp.
Based on President Regulation No. 2 of 2021 regarding Ratification of the Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalization for Foreign Public Documents (“PR 2/2021”), Indonesia stipulated to ratify the Convention with a purpose to improve public services and support the ease of doing business in Indonesia and to simplify the legalization of foreign public documents. By ratifying the Convention with provision of PR 2/2021, Indonesia has abolished the legalization requirement for several public documents. The provision of PR 2/2021 also can expedite international cooperative relations. Indonesia also add a statement from the Convention regarding the documents that still require legalization. Based on Article 1 of the Convention as already ratified by PR 2/2021, this Convention shall apply to public documents used in the territory of a participating country and which must be produced in the territory of other participating countries.
b. Characteristics of documents that do not require legalization and documents that still require legalization based on PR 2/2021
Based on Article 1 of the Convention, public documents that do not require legalization are:
a. Documents emanating from an authority or an official connected with the courts or tribunals of the State, including those emanating from a public prosecutor, a clerk of a court or a process-server;
b. Administrative documents;
c. Notarial acts;
d. Official certificates which are placed on documents signed by persons in their private capacity, such as official certificates recording the registration of a document or the fact that it was in existence on a certain date and official and notarial authentications of signatures.
However, abolishing the requirement of the legalization shall not apply to the below:
a. To documents executed by diplomatic or consular agents;
b. To administrative documents dealing directly with commercial or customs operations;
In addition, the Appendix of PR 2/2021 stipulated adding a statement regarding documents still requiring legalization. The statement is that the documents issued by the prosecutor’s office as the prosecuting body in the Republic of Indonesia are not included in public documents whose requirements of legalization have been abolished as outlined in the Convention.
c. Apostille for documents that do not need to be legalized
To replace the legalization for several public documents that do not require legalization as mentioned above, it is now required to get Apostille stamp to ensure the authenticity of documents. As stipulated in Article 3 of the Convention, the only formality that can be required to certify the authenticity of a documents, such as a signature, the authority possessed by the signer, or the identity of the seal or stamp affixed on it (if any), is the addition of an Apostille certificate to the documents.
As mentioned on Article 5 of the Convention, an Apostille certificate is issued with the request of the signer or documents bearer. After the Apostille certificate issued and affixed in the documents, it is will state the authentications of the documents, such as authenticity of the signature, the authority possessed by the signer, and the identity of the seal or stamp affixed on it or in other word the documents has the strength of proof of authenticity as the documents was legalized.
Based on Article 6 of the Convention, the Apostille certificate is issued by the competent authority in each participating country. Regarding this matter, the authority who is competent to issued Apostille certificates in Indonesia is the Directorate General of General Law Administration of Ministry of Law and Human Rights.
Author: Vania Aqilla Cahyaningrum
Gaffar & Co., Indonesian Boutique Law Firm which specializing and focus on commercial law areas includes capital market and financial services.
For further queries and information, contact us:
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