EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
1982 No.111
International Organizations (Privileges and Immunities) Act
1963 - Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic
Marine Living Resources (First Meeting)
(Privileges and Immunities) Regulations
Statutory Rules 1982 No. 83 Issued by Authority of the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs
The purpose of these Regulations is to accord privileges and immunities to persons attending the first meeting of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources in Hobart.
Article XXVIII (1) of the Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (the Convention) provides that the Convention enters into force 30 days after the eighth ratification to it has been deposited. On 8 March 1982 the eighth Party, New Zealand, deposited, its instrument of ratification: the Convention therefore entered into force on 7 April 1982.
Article XIII (2) of the Convention provides that the first meeting of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (the Commission) must be held within three months of the date of entry into force of the Convention. The first meeting will be held in Hobart between 25 May and 11 June 1982. One of the major purposes of the meeting will be to settle the terms of the Headquarters Agreement between the Government of Australia and the
Commission. When the Headquarters Agreement has been finalised, it will be necessary to declare the Commission to be an organization to which the Act applies, and to accord the commission and persons associated with it certain privileges and immunities as provided in the Act. The extent of these privileges and immunities will be determined at the first meeting.
In order to facilitate the performance by the commission of its functions under the Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources, and in anticipation of a permanent regime of privileges and immunities to be accorded under the Headquarters Agreement, it is desirable that a regime of privileges and immunities should be made applicable to the Commission’s first meeting.
The proposed regulations declaring the first meeting of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources to be an International Conference for the purposes of Section 7(1) of the International Organizations (Privileges and Immunities) Act 1963 will have the effect of according diplomatic privileges and immunities to persons representing a country (other than Australia) or an appropriate international organization at the meeting and comparable privileges and immunities to the official staff of such representatives.
Members of the Secretariat to the meeting, who will all be Australians will be accorded immunity from suit and legal process in respect of their official acts only.
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