EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS (PRIVILEGES AND IMMUNITIES) ACT 1963
SPECIALIZED AGENCIES (PRIVILEGES AND IMMUNITIES) REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT).
Statutory Rules No. 1989 No 341 issued by the authority of the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and Trade.
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.
Section 5 of the Act provides that the regulations may declare an organisation to be an international organisation to which the Act applies.
The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) was declared to be an international organisation for the purposes of the Act in 1986. In December 1987, formal notification of Australia’s intention to withdraw from UNIDO was deposited with the United Nations Secretary-General. The withdrawal took effect on 31 December 1988.
The Regulations remove UNIDO from the list of specialised United Nations agencies on which privileges and immunities are conferred, as a consequence of Australia’s withdrawal from the Organization.
Details of the Regulations are as follow:
Regulation 1 defines the “Principal Regulations” to be the Specialized Agencies (Privileges and Immunities) Regulations.
Regulation 2 omits all references to the United Nations Industrial Development Organization from Regulation 9 of the Principal Regulations.
Regulation 3 omits the reference to the United Nations Industrial Development Organization from the Schedule to the Principal Regulations.