Third Report on the relations between States and international organizations – ILC Special Rapporteur Díaz-González
Reference Number: A/CN.4/401
Type of Document: Soft law
International Organization: United Nations
Year: 1986
Issuing Body: International bodies and institutions
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 Third Report of the Special Rapporteur Díaz-González addresses the legal questions concerning the scope of the immunities granted to international organizations and their agents.
As it stresses, the privileges and immunities conferred on international organizations, pursuant to the relevant constitutive treaties and headquarters agreements, “are founded on the principle underlying the legal status of international organizations, i.e. the guarantee afforded by the host country that they can, with complete freedom and independence, exercise on its territory their constitutional and statutory activities or any other activity connected with the functions assigned to them.”