EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS (PRIVILEGES AND IMMUNITIES) ACT 1963
INTERNATIONAL JUTE ORGANIZATION (PRIVILEGES AND IMMUNITIES) REGULATIONS
STATUTORY RULES 1984 No. 52 ISSUED BY THE AUTHORITY OF THE MINISTER OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS
The International Agreement on Jute and Jute Products, which was drawn up in Geneva on 1 October 1982 and which entered into force provisionally on 9 January 1984, established the International Jute Organization which consists of both jute exporting and jute importing countries.
The major objectives of the Agreement are to improve structural conditions in the jute market and to enhance the competitiveness of, and to enlarge the markets for, jute and jute products. These objectives are to be achieved through various research, development and promotion projects and through the collation and dissemination of information relating to jute and jute products. The International Jute Organization is to be headquartered in Dhaka, Bangladesh. This will function through an International Jute Council. The administrative expenses of the Organization are to be met by the member states according to the number of votes held which are determined on the basis of trade in jute and jute products.
The Prime Minister, the Ministers for Trade, Industry and Commerce, Foreign Affairs, Primary Industry and Finance, the
Attorney-General and the Treasurer have agreed that Australia should accede to the Agreement.
Article 17.1 obliges parties to the Agreement to confer legal personality on the Organization and to ensure, in particular, that it has the capacity to contract, to acquire and dispose of movable and immovable property and to institute legal proceedings. In order to enable Australia to accede to the Agreement, it is necessary to make regulations under the International Organizations (Privileges and Immunities) Act 1963 to give effect to these requirements within Australia.
Section 5 of the Act provides that regulations may be made to declare an international organization to be an international organization to which the Act applies. Section 6 of the Act provides, furthermore, that the regulations may confer upon such an international organization juridical personality and such legal capacities as are necessary for the exercise of the powers and the performance of its functions.
The regulations enclosed herewith have been prepared to give effect within Australia to the requirements of Article 17.1 of the Agreement.
Statutory Rules 1984