What is the Permanent Bureau of the Hague Conference?
The Permanent Bureau is the secretariat of the Hague Conference. Its main task consists in the preparation and organisation of the Plenary Sessions and the Special Commissions. The officials of the Permanent Bureau must be of different nationalities. The Secretary General is assisted currently by five lawyers (one Deputy Secretary General, two First Secretaries and two Secretaries). For more information on the entire staff of the Permanent Bureau, click here. The Permanent Bureau carries out the basic research required for any subject that the Conference takes up. It also maintains and develops contacts with the National Organs, experts and delegates of Member States and the Central Authorities designated by the States Parties to the Hague Conventions on judicial and administrative co-operation, as well as with international organisations and, increasingly, responds to requests for information from users of the Conventions (lawyers, notaries, officials, companies, journalists, private
