Lesotho spreads the certifying power over a list of titles running from the Attorney-General down to magistrates, and its HCCH record does not show when that list was last updated. This page is for Lesotho institutions receiving Turkish papers and for Turks with documents from Lesotho. It covers the list that includes magistrates, the five and a half years between notification and effect, what an undated authority page means for a Turkish office, how a certificate from Lesotho is read and the place of translation.
From the Attorney-General to magistrates: the Lesotho list
The HCCH authority page names titles: the Attorney-General, the Permanent Secretaries of ministries or departments, the Registrar of the High Court, resident magistrates and magistrates of the first class. Persons appointed by notice in the Gazette are added. No ministry or directorate is named; the power goes to persons through their titles. Which document goes to which title, how many magistrates there are and where they sit are not stated in the HCCH summary and were not verified on this site.
Effect in 1966, notification in 1972
According to the HCCH notifications page, the Convention applied to the territory of Lesotho through the United Kingdom extension of 24 February 1965. Lesotho notified succession on 24 April 1972; the HCCH table gives the effective date as 4 October 1966. In succession the effect reaches back to independence; in Lesotho five and a half years separate that date from the notification. For a Turkish file the gap has no consequence: Lesotho was long on record when Türkiye became bound on 29 September 1985, the relationship began that day, and no objection is recorded between the two.
A Lesotho authority page without an update date
The Lesotho authority page carries no update date. Whether the listed titles still apply, and who has been appointed by notice since, therefore cannot be read from the HCCH record and was not followed here. No fee appears on the page. The e-APP chart of 13 August 2026 has no electronic apostille or online register for Lesotho; that does not mean there is no electronic service, only that no address has been notified. How to check a certificate from Lesotho was not found in this site’s survey.
Reading a certificate from Lesotho: heading, form, capacity
A Turkish institution receiving a document from Lesotho recognises the certificate by the Convention’s own rules. Under article 4 and the annex, the heading is always the French “Apostille (Convention de La Haye du 5 octobre 1961)”, and the certificate is a square with sides of at least 9 cm. Under article 5 it confirms the authenticity of the signature, the capacity in which the signer acted and the seal or stamp; it gives no assurance about the content. In Lesotho, the person issuing the certificate holds one of the listed titles; which title certifies which document is not separated in the HCCH summary.
A Turkish document for Lesotho
When an authority in Lesotho asks for an apostille on a Turkish document, the certificate is obtained in Türkiye: a valilik or kaymakamlık, the provincial or district governor’s office, for administrative documents and every notarial act, and for the original of a judicial document the adalet komisyonu başkanlığı indicated by Circular 68/1, that is the commission at a seat of a high criminal court. A physical certificate issued by a governor’s office can be checked by the institution in Lesotho on e-İçişleri, with its serial number, verification code and date. The Legalisation Unit of the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs does not legalise apostilled papers, so a file for Lesotho does not pass through it. Lesotho has not acceded to ETS 063, CIEC 16 or CIEC 17; Turkish civil status documents carry no CIEC exemption there.
Translation in a Lesotho file
Which language and which certification institutions in Lesotho want on a translation of a Turkish document was not found in this site’s survey; the receiving institution sets it. A translation made in Türkiye is certified by a notary, and a governor’s office then certifies the notary’s certification; the certificate vouches for the notary’s signature, not for the translated content. Whether the Turkish translation of a document from Lesotho also renders the French-headed certificate is decided by the receiving Turkish institution. Open points: allocation of documents among titles, whether the list is current, the fee and the verification route. A translation office renders the text and does not assess the certificate.