The Ministry of Justice of Bosnia and Herzegovina is the central state authority for the implementation of the Convention on the Enforcement of Maintenance Claims Abroad of 1956. The Convention facilitates the initiation of maintenance proceedings and the enforcement of decisions abroad.

The enforcement of maintenance claims abroad implies the exercise of the rights of a person whose legal guardian is located in another country.

The Convention on the Enforcement of Maintenance Claims Abroad applies in cases where the maintenance creditor is located in the territory of one Contracting Party (the creditor's country) and the maintenance debtor is located in the territory and under the jurisdiction of the other Contracting Party (the debtor's country).

The 2007 Hague Convention on the International Enforcement of Child Support and Other Forms of Family Maintenance has been binding on Bosnia and Herzegovina since 1 February 2013. It entered into force on 1 January 2013. It is important to note that the USA signed the 2007 Hague Convention on 23 September 2007 and that it only entered into force at the beginning of 2017.

The aforementioned Convention, which is binding on Bosnia and Herzegovina and all its authorities, has a humanitarian character and aims to facilitate the realization of alimony, i.e. the realization of the right of alimony creditors to legal maintenance, therefore it is necessary for Bosnia and Herzegovina and all its authorities to ensure its smooth implementation.

The reason for adopting an additional legal instrument was to correct the shortcomings of certain solutions contained in the already existing Convention, but also to resolve problems that arise from its application in practice.

The adoption of the new Convention has expanded and regulated in more detail the entire area of ​​​​realization of the right to maintenance in international cases. It contains most of the most efficient solutions and actually represents a better way of resolving the above cases. Thus, the preamble to the Hague Convention already emphasizes its purpose: to promote cooperation between States in the international enforcement of child support and other forms of family maintenance and to provide procedures that will yield results and that are accessible, expeditious, efficient, cost-effective, appropriate and fair.

In this sense, the subject matter of the Hague Convention is also more broadly defined (a comprehensive system of cooperation, ensuring that maintenance decisions are recognized and enforced, while requiring effective measures for the prompt enforcement of decisions) as well as its application (parent-child maintenance obligations towards a person under the age of 21 and spousal maintenance).

After the maintenance creditor submits a request for maintenance to the central authority of the state of the maintenance creditor, the request is forwarded to the central authority of the state of the debtor, unless it is determined to be unfounded. The central authority of the creditor's state may submit to the central authority of the debtor's state its opinion on the justification of the claim for maintenance and may recommend that the creditor be provided with free legal assistance and exemption from costs.