EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
International Organizations (Privileges and Immunities) Act 1963 - Commonwealth Secretariat (Privileges and Immunities) Regulations (Amendment)
Statutory Rules 198 2 No. 136 Issued by Authority of the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs
Section 13 of the International Organizations (Privileges and Immunities) Act 1963 (the Act) provides that the Governor-General may make regulations, not inconsistent with the Act, prescribing all matters required or permitted by the Act to be prescribed, or necessary or convenient to be prescribed for carrying out or giving effect to the Act.
Sub-paragraph 6(1)(e)(i) of the Act provides that the regulations may confer upon a person who is serving on a committee or is participating in the work, of an international organization to which the Act applies or is performing, whether alone or jointly with other persons, a mission on behalf of such an organization all or any of the privileges and immunities specified in Part I of the Fifth Schedule to the Act. Persons described in sub-paragraph 6(1)(e)(i) of the Act are referred to in this statement as “experts”.
The Commonwealth Secretariat and certain persons associated with it are currently accorded privileges and immunities in Australia by the Commonwealth Secretariat (Privileges and Immunities) Regulations 1972 (the Regulations) which were made pursuant to the Act. There is, however, no provision in the Regulations for experts of the Commonwealth Secretariat or its subsidiary bodies to be accorded privileges and immunities.
By Regulation 5 of the Regulations, the Commonwealth of Nations is declared to be an organization to which the Act applies. Sub-section 3(1) of the Act defines an international organization to which the Act applies as including a body established by an organ of an international organization to which the Act applies. Regulation 3(1) defines the Commonwealth Secretariat as an organ of the Commonwealth of Nations. The Commonwealth Fund for Technical Cooperation (CFTC) is a body established by the Commonwealth Secretariat.
The purpose of the proposed Regulations is to amend the Regulations so as to accord experts of the Commonwealth Secretariat and its subsidiary bodies (including the CFTC) certain privileges and immunities. In addition to privileges and immunities related to official acts, such as inviolability of documents, the proposed Regulations will accord experts immunity from personal arrest or detention and the like privileges and immunities in respect of personal baggage as are accorded to an envoy.
Under an arrangement between Australia and the CFTC, an expert of the CFTC has been posted to Australia to perform the duties of Technical Adviser to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Regional Meeting Consultative Group on Trade. Persons performing the duties of this position meet the criteria specified in sub-paragraph 6(1)(e)(i) and are referred to by the CFTC as “experts”.
International practice is that experts of international organizations who take up duties in countries other than their own are accorded an appropriate level of privileges and immunities. Australian experts employed by international organizations in other countries are accorded privileges and immunities similar to those in the proposed Regulations. The CFTC has requested that its expert, who has already taken up duty in Australia, be accorded such privileges and immunities. It is expected that there will be very few similar cases in future.
The proposed Regulations also provide that former experts continue to be immune, after completing their duties as experts, from suit and legal process in respect of acts done in the course of their duties. This is in accordance with international practice.