Privileges And Immunities Granted In The Headquarters And Host Agreements

Abstract

The thesis discusses the privileges and immunities granted to organizations under international conventions, in particular headquarters agreements concluded between the international organizations and the state on the territory of which the quarters of the organization are situated. It endeavours to trace the historical development of the establishment of the international organizations, the manner of their establishment, the controversy about defining the international organization, the types and the various divisions. An International organization is one of the persons of public international law, as a result of the changing circumstances in the international relations due to the appearance of international organizations, and to the jurisprudential promotion in respect of persons of international law, which has discarded the concept of the persons of international law being restricted to states alone. The thesis discusses the legal status of international organizations, the recognition of the legal status, and respect of privileges and immunities, which are required by functions of international organizations. The immunities of international officials and the immunity of funds of the international organizations, the quarters, documents and business are provided in the instruments establishing the organization. Likewise the thesis discusses enjoyment, by the international organizations, of legal status in domestic laws and its capacity to acquire estates and conclude contracts. The instruments of the international organizations provide for this capacity, and particularly in such agreements, the organization may conclude with states, in whose territory the quarters are situated. Such capacity has been referred to by the International Court of Justice in its Advisory Opinion concerning the compensation for damages which the United Nations had sustained in Palestine. The capacity of the international organization to exercise the rights recognized in the domestic law, particularly in the states parties to the organization result from this status. The thesis considers in detail the subject of the immunity necessary for exercising function of the international organization and protection of the officials and representatives, as one of the effects of the recognition of the legal status for an international organization. It dealt with general conventions and protocols in this respect such as the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations ١٩٤٦ (The General Convention), and the ١٩٤٧ Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the Specialized Agencies. The quarters agreements signed by the Sudan with regional organizations grant privileges and immunities to the organization and its employees. Also there are privileges and immunities pertaining to country offices of the UN, the specialized agencies and other organizations, and the legal status of national and foreign NGOs, operating in the Sudan, and which have signed agreements of quarters with the governments. The thesis concludes that the agreements concerning international organizations in the Sudan lack many safeguards, since they are not provided for in some of these agreements. The principles concerning granting immunities have to be included therein. The thesis recommends the establishment of a mechanism at the national level to be responsible for revision, establishment, co-ordination and evaluation of the work of international organizations resident in the Sudan, and to submit periodical reports to competent bodies, and that the state has to use its right to waive such immunities, whenever it deems that such immunities impede the progress, in order to guarantee the sovereignty of the state and its territory.