Privileges and immunities accorded to international organisations and their staffs

Recommendation 482 (1967)

Author(s):

Parliamentary Assembly

Origin

Assembly Debate on 26th January 1967 (23rd Sitting) (see Doc. 2158Doc. 2158, report of the Legal Committee). Text adopted by the Assembly on 26th January 1967 (23rd Sitting).

The Assembly,

1. Considering that the European Committee on Legal Co-operation is studying ways and means of harmonising the privileges and immunities accorded to international organisations and the persons employed by them ;

2. Considering that, without overlooking certain problems raised by these privileges and immunities, it is essential to bear in mind the purpose of these privileges and the spirit in which they were granted to the organisations and persons in question, and in particular to the European organisations and their staffs ;

3. Persuaded that certain privileges and immunities, particularly those of a political nature, are essential to the authority and efficient working of the international organisations ;

4. Convinced that the international organisations and their employees cannot fulfil the international character of their functions unless they are sufficiently independent of national authorities, and that only with this independence will they be able to defend the common interests of a number of States as opposed to national interest ;

5. Recognising, however, the principle which obliges international organisations to assume responsibility for any damage caused to persons or to property ;

6. Noting that the provisions now in force and the practice followed in the matter of the privileges and immunities enjoyed by international organisations do not always permit the effective application of this principle,

7. Recommends the Committee of Ministers:

a to instruct the European Committee on Legal Co-operation :

to concentrate their study of the problems raised by the privileges and immunities accorded to international organisations and their staffs on the question of their responsibility for any damage they may cause to persons or property ;

to refrain from dealing with the privileges and immunities of an essentially political nature which are intended to ensure the independence of the organisations and persons in question ;

b to transmit to the Assembly for opinion the conclusions reached by the European Committee on Legal Co-operation before taking any final decisions in the matter.