Fourth report on relations between States and international organizations – ILC Special Rapporteur Díaz-González

By resolution 1289(XIII) of 5 December 1958, the General Assembly invited the International Law Commission to consider the question of relations between States and international organizations. The second part of the topic focused on the status and immunities of international organizations and their functionaries. At its twenty-eighth session, in 1976, the Commission requested the Special Rapporteur for the topic of relations between States and international organization, Abdullah El-Erian, to prepare a preliminary report on the status, privileges and immunities of international organizations and their officials, experts and other persons engaged in their activities who are not representatives of States. The Commission authorized the Special Rapporteur to continue the studies on the topic, which aimed at drafting a convention on the status, privileges and immunities of international organizations and their agents. At its thirty-first session, in 1979, the Commission appointed Leonardo Díaz-González as Special Rapporteur to replace Mr. Abdullah El-Erian.

The Fourth Report of the Special Rapporteur Díaz-González addresses the legal questions concerning the notion of international organizations, their legal capacity and the scope of the privileges and immunities conferred on them and their agents. As underlined in the Report, these three concepts are interconnected. In particular, according to the Special Rapporteur, “international organizations enjoy privileges and immunities motu proprio, being granted them in conventions, headquarters agreements, or possibly by custom, in their capacity as international legal persons, as subjects of international law. They are entitled to privileges and immunities and can require them of States”.