EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
1984 No. 216
INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATIONS (PRIVILEGES AND IMMUNITIES) ACT 1963
COMMISSION FOR THE CONSERVATION OF ANTARCTIC MARINE LIVING RESOURCES (PRIVILEGES AND IMMUNITIES) REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT)
STATUTORY RULES 1984 No. 216 ISSUED BY THE AUTHORITY OF THE MINISTER OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS.
In 1983 the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (the Commission) was declared to be an international organisation to which the Act applied, and had conferred upon it and its officials certain of the privileges and immunities contained in the Schedules to the Act.
The first and second Meetings of the Commission were held in Hobart during 1983. Agreement was reached on privileges and immunities to be granted to representatives at meetings of the Commission. The third meeting of the Commission is to be held in Hobart between 3 and 14 September, during which the unresolved issues relating to the Headquarters Agreement will be finalised.
International practice requires that appropriate privilege and immunities be granted to representatives at the forthcoming meeting. Those proposed in the regulations will be available to all representatives to all future meetings of the
Commission, and reflect what is acceptable to the Australian Government. The proposed regulations will also repeat those regulations which were made for, and which had limited applicaton to, the first and second meetings of the Commission.
In Australia, privileges and immunities may be accorded to international organisations by regulations made under the International Organisations (Privileges and Immunities) Act 1983 (the Act).
Section 13 of the Act provides that the Governor-General may make regulations not inconsistent with the Act for matters for carrying out or giving effect to the Act. Section 4 of the Act provides that regulations may be made to declare an international organisation to be an organisation to which the Act applies. Section 6 of the Act provides, furthermore, that the regulations may confer upon such an international organisation juridical personality, such legal capacities as are necesary for the exercise of the powers and the performance of its functions and all or any of the privileges and immunities specified in the First Schedule to the Act.
The regulations enclosed herewith have been prepared in accordance with practice under international law, to give effect within Australia of the requirement that official representatives to international conferences be accorded certain privileges and immunities.
Statutory Rules 1984