November 1976
Draft of reply to Jørgen Junior’s query no. 86 regarding the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties and its principles on diplomatic immunity
This document was made possible with support from Kyungnam University
Draft of reply to Jørgen Junior’s query no. 86 regarding the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties and its principles on diplomatic immunity.
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The Vienna Convention of April 18th 1961 regarding diplomatic relations was ratified by Denmark and is now signed by more than 110 states. Its basic principles however, has served as the basis for intergovernmental relations for a long time. Over the treaty’s first 15 years of existence, it has been widely endorsed and adopted, and its principles are now further cemented as the basis for international relations.
The practical rationale for the rights granted to diplomats is to ensure the diplomats’ independence from the authorities of the host country. These countries must not, by means of coercion, interference or other sanctions, be able to prevent diplomatic representatives from promoting the interests of their own country.
Diplomatic representatives are also – as expressed in the Convention’s Article 41 – obligated to follow the laws and regulations of the host state.
As stipulated in Article 9 of the Convention, the host state can at any time, and without reason, inform the sender state that the head of the mission or any other diplomatic personnel has committed acts constituting misuse of diplomatic rights. In such instances, the sender state is obligated to terminate the mission.
On these grounds, it is not realistic to gain the sufficient international support required to change the rules of the convention. In later conventions - the latest being the convention of 1975 – it has been apparent that a significant majority of countries under no circumstances want to see diplomatic rights curtailed.
In my opinion, any initiative by Denmark to change the laws of the treaty would be damaging to Denmark’s relations with all those countries with whom we have diplomatic relations, who follow the laws of the convention.
An initiative as the one suggested would not be beneficial to Danish foreign policy, and I will answer the question with a no.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs explained that changing the laws about diplomatic immunity would be difficult because of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treatise.
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