Snee, Joseph M.

English

U.S. Naval War College Digital Commons

The thoughts and opinions expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily of the U.S. Government, the U.S. Department of the Navy or the Naval War College.  International Law Studies—Volume 54 NATO Agreements on Status: Travaux Preparatoires Joseph M. Snee (Editor) 43C. PROTOCOL ON THE STATUS OF INTERNATIONAL MILI-TARY HEADQUARTERS SET UP PURSUANT TO THENORTH ATLANTIC TREATY *The Parties to the North Atlantic Treaty signed in Washingtonon 4th April, 1949,2Considering that international military Headquarters may beestablished in their territories, by separate arrangement, under theNorth Atlantic Treaty, andDesiring to define the status of such Headquarters and of the per-sonnel thereof within the North Atlantic Treaty area,Have agreed to the present Protocol to the Agreement signed inLondon on 19th June, 1951, regarding the Status of their Forces :3Article 1In the present Protocol the expression(a) "the Agreement" means the Agreement signed in Londonon 19th June, 1951, by the Parties to the North AtlanticTreaty regarding the Status of their Forces;(b) "Supreme Headquarters" means Supreme Headquarters Al-lied Powers in Europe, Headquarters of the Supreme AlliedCommander Atlantic and any equivalent international mili-tary Headquarters set up pursuant to the North AtlanticTreaty;(c) "Allied Headquarters" means any Supreme Headquartersand any international military Headquarters set up pursuantto the North Atlantic Treaty which is immediately subordi-nate to a Supreme Headquarters;(d) "North Atlantic Council" means the Council established byArticle 9 of the North Atlantic Treaty or any of its sub-sidiary bodies authorised to act on its behalf.Article 2Subject to the following provisions of this Protocol, the Agreementshall apply to Allied Headquarters in the territory of a Party to thepresent Protocol in the North Atlantic Treaty area, and to the mili-tary and civilian personnel of such Headquarters and their depend-i TIAS 2978 ; 5 UST 870 ; 200 UNTS 340. The final text was distributed, forinformation and record purposes, as C-M(52) 30(F) (omitted here), on 26 Sep-tember 1952.2 63 Stat., pt. 2, 2241 ; TIAS 1964 ; 34 UNTS 243.3 TIAS 2846 ; 4 UST 1792 ; 199 UNTS 67.44ents included in the definitions in sub-paragraphs (a), (b) and (c)of paragraph 1 of Article 3 of this Protocol, when such personnelare present in any such territory in connection with their officialduties or, in the case of dependents, the official duties of their spouseor parent.Article 31. For the purpose of applying the Agreement to an Allied Head-quarters the expressions "force," "civilian component" and "depend-ent," wherever they occur in the Agreement, shall have the meaningset out below:(a) "force" means the personnel attached to the Allied Head-quarters who belong to the land, sea or air armed servicesof any Party to the North Atlantic Treaty;(b) "civilian component" means civilian personnel who are notstateless persons, nor nationals of any State which is not aParty to the Treaty, nor nationals of, nor ordinarily residentin the receiving State, and who are (i) attached to the Al-lied Headquarters and in the employ of an armed serviceof a Party to the North Atlantic Treaty or (ii) in suchcategories of civilian personnel in the employ of the AlliedHeadquarters as the North Atlantic Council shall decide;(c) "dependent" means the spouse of a member of a force orcivilian component, as defined in sub-paragraphs (a) and (b)of this paragraph, or a child of such member depending onhim or her for support.2. An Allied Headquarters shall be considered to be a force forthe purposes of Article II, paragraph 2 of Article V, paragraph 10of Article VII, paragraphs 2, 3, 4, 7 and 8 of Article IX, and ArticleXIII, of the Agreement.Article 4The rights and obligations which the Agreement gives to or im-poses upon the sending State or its authorities in respect of its forcesor their civilian components or dependents shall, in respect of anAllied Headquarters and its personnel and their dependents to whomthe Agreement applies in accordance with Article 2 of the presentProtocol, be vested in or attach to the appropriate Supreme Head-quarters and the authorities responsible under it, except that(a) the right which is given by Article VII of the Agreement tothe military authorities of the sending State to exercisecriminal and disciplinary jurisdiction shall be vested in themilitary authorities of the State, if any, to whose militarylaw the person concerned is subject;45(b) the obligations imposed upon the sending State or its au-thorities by Article II, paragraph 4 of Article III, para-graphs 5(a) and 6(a) of Article VII, paragraphs 9 and 10of Article VIII, and Article XIII, of the Agreement, shallattach both to the Allied Headquarters and to any Statewhose armed service, or any member or employee of whosearmed service, or the dependent of such member or em-ployee, is concerned;(c) for the purposes of paragraphs 2(a) and 5 of Article III,and Article XIV, of the Agreement, the sending State shallbe, in the case of members of a force and their dependents,the State to whose armed service the member belongs, or,in the case of members of a civilian component and theirdependents, the State, if any, by whose armed service themember is employed;(d) the obligations imposed on the sending State by virtue ofparagraphs 6 and 7 of Article VIII of the Agreement shallattach to the State to whose armed service the person be-longs whose act or omission has given rise to the claim or,in the case of a member of a civilian component, to theState by whose armed service he is employed or, if there isno such State, to the Allied Headquarters of which the per-son concerned is a member.Both the State, if any, to which obligations attach under thisparagraph and the Allied Headquarters concerned shall have therights of the sending State in connection with the appointment of anarbitrator under paragraph 8 of Article VIII.Article 5Every member of an Allied Headquarters shall have a personalidentity card issued by the Headquarters showing names, date andplace of birth, nationality, rank or grade, number (if any), photo-graph and period of validity. This card must be presented ondemand.Article 61. The obligations to waive claims imposed on the ContractingParties by Article VIII of the Agreement shall attach both to theAllied Headquarters and to any Party to this Protocol concerned.2. For the purposes of paragraphs 1 and 2 of Article VIII ofthe Agreement,(a) property owned by an Allied Headquarters or by a Partyto this Protocol and used by an Allied Headquarters shall46be deemed to be property owned by a Contracting Partyand used by its armed services;(b) damage caused by a member of a force or civilian compo-nent as defined in paragraph 1 of Article 3 of this Protocolor by any other employee of an Allied Headquarters shallbe deemed to be damage caused by a member or employeeof the armed services of a Contracting Party;(c) the definition of the expression "owned by a ContractingParty" in paragraph 3 of Article VIII shall apply in re-spect of an Allied Headquarters.3. The claims to which paragraph 5 of Article VIII of the Agree-ment applies shall include claims (other than contractual claims andclaims to which paragraphs 6 or 7 of that Article apply) arising outof acts or omissions of any employees of an Allied Headquarters, orout of any other act, omission or occurrence for which an AlliedHeadquarters is legally responsible, and causing damage in the terri-tory of a receiving State to third parties, other than any of theParties to this Protocol.Article 71. The exemption from taxation accorded under Article X of theAgreement to members of a force or civilian component in respect oftheir salaries and emoluments shall apply, as regards personnel of anAllied Headquarters within the definitions in paragraphs 1(a) and(b) (i) of Article 3 of this Protocol, to salaries and emoluments paidto them as such personnel by the armed service to which they belongor by which they are employed, except that this paragraph shall notexempt any such member or employee from taxation imposed by aState of which he is a national.2. Employees of an Allied Headquarters of categories agreed bythe North Atlantic Council, shall be exempted from taxation on thesalaries and emoluments paid to them by the Allied Headquarters intheir capacity as such employees. Any Party to the present Protocolmay, however, conclude an arrangement with the Allied Headquar-ters whereby such Party will employ and assign to the Allied Head-quarters all of its nationals (except, if such Party so desires, any notordinarily resident within its territory) who are to serve on the staffof the Allied Headquarters and pay the salaries and emoluments ofsuch persons from its own funds, at a scale fixed by it. The salariesand emoluments so paid may be taxed by the Party concerned butshall be exempted from taxation by any other Party. If such anarrangement is entered into by any Party to the present Protocol andis subsequently modified or terminated, Parties to the present Pro-47tocol shall no longer be bound under the first sentence of this para-graph to exempt from taxation the salaries and emoluments paid totheir nationals.Article 81. For the purpose of facilitating the establishment, construction,maintenance and operation of Allied Headquarters, these Headquar-ters shall be relieved, so far as practicable, from duties and taxes,affecting expenditures by them in the interest of the common defenseand for their official and exclusive benefit, and each Party to thepresent Protocol shall enter into negotiations with any Allied Head-quarters operating in its territory for the purpose of concluding anagreement to give effect to this provision.2. An Allied Headquarters shall have the rights granted to a forceunder Article XI of the Agreement subject to the same conditions.3. The provisions in paragraphs 5 and 6 of Article XI of theAgreement shall not apply to nationals of the receiving States, unlesssuch nationals belong to the armed services of a Party to this Pro-tocol other than the receiving State.4. The expression "duties and taxes" in this Article does not in-clude charges for services rendered.Article 9Except in so far as the North Atlantic Council may decide other-wise,(a) any assets acquired from the international funds of an AlliedHeadquarters under its capital budget and no longer requiredby the. Headquarters shall be disposed of under arrangementsapproved by the North Atlantic Council and the proceeds shallbe distributed among or credited to the Parties to the NorthAtlantic Treaty in the proportions in which they have con-tributed to the capital costs of the Headquarters. The receiv-ing State shall have the prior right to acquire any immovableproperty so disposed of in its territory, provided that it offersterms no less favourable than those offered by any thirdparty;(b) any land, buildings or fixed installations provided for the useof an Allied Headquarters by the receiving State withoutcharge to the Headquarters (other than a nominal charge)and no longer required by the Headquarters shall be handedback to the receiving State, and any increase or loss in thevalue of the property provided by the receiving State result-48ing from its use by the Headquarters shall be determined bythe North Atlantic Council (taking into consideration anyapplicable law of the receiving State) and distributed amongor credited or debited to the Parties to the North AtlanticTreaty in the proportions in which they have contributed tothe capital costs of the Headquarters.Article 10Each Supreme Headquarters shall possess juridical personality; itshall have the capacity to conclude contracts and to acquire and dis-pose of property. The receiving State may, however, make the exer-cise of such capacity subject to special arrangements between it andthe Supreme Headquarters or any subordinate Allied Headquartersacting on behalf of the Supreme Headquarters.Article 111. Subject to the provisions of Article VIII of the Agreement, aSupreme Headquarters may engage in legal proceedings as claimantor defendant. However, the receiving State and the Supreme Head-quarters or any subordinate Allied Headquarters authorised by itmay agree that the receiving State shall act on behalf of the SupremeHeadquarters in any legal proceedings to which that Headquarters isa party before the courts of the receiving State.2. No measure of execution or measure directed to the seizure orattachment of its property or funds shall be taken against any AlliedHeadquarters, except for the purposes of paragraph 6(a) of ArticleVII and Article XIII of the Agreement.Article 121. To enable it to operate its international budget, an Allied Head-quarters may hold currency of any kind and operate accounts in anycurrency.2. The Parties to the present Protocol shall, at the request of anAllied Headquarters, facilitate transfers of the funds of such Head-quarters from one country to another and the convefsion of any cur-rency held by an Allied Headquarters into any other currency, whennecessary to meet the requirements of any Allied Headquarters.Article 13The archives and other official documents of an Allied Headquar-ters kept in premises used by those Headquarters or in the possession49of any properly authorised member of the Headquarters shall be in-violable, unless the Headquarters has waived this immunity. TheHeadquarters shall, at the request of the receiving State and in thepresence of a representative of that State, verify the nature of anydocuments to confirm that they are entitled to immunity under thisArticle.Article 141. The whole or any part of the present Protocol or of the Agree-ment may be applied, by decision of the North Atlantic Council, toany international military Headquarters or organisation (not in-cluded in the definitions in paragraphs (b) and (c) of Article 1 ofthis Protocol) which is established pursuant to the North AtlanticTreaty.2. When the European Defence Community comes into being, thepresent Protocol may be applied to the personnel of the EuropeanDefence Forces attached to an Allied Headquarters and their de-pendents at such time and in such manner as may be determined bythe North Atlantic Council.Article 15All differences between the Parties to the present Protocol or be-tween any such Parties and any Allied Headquarters relating to theinterpretation or application of the Protocol shall be settled by nego-tiation between the parties in dispute without recourse to any outsidejurisdiction. Except where express provision is made to the contraryin the present Protocol or in the Agreement, differences which can-not be settled by direct negotiation shall be referred to the NorthAtlantic Council.Article 161. Articles XV and XVII to XX of the Agreement shall apply asregards the present Protocol as if they were an integral part thereof,but so that the Protocol may be reviewed, suspended, ratified, ac-ceded to, denounced or extended in accordance with those provisionsindependently from the Agreement.2. The present Protocol may be supplemented by bilateral agree-ment between the receiving State and a Supreme Headquarters, andthe authorities of a receiving State and a Supreme Headquarters mayagree to give effect, by administrative means in advance of ratifica-tion, to any provisions of this Protocol or of the Agreement as ap-plied by it.50In witness whereof the undersigned Plenipotentiaries have signedthe present Protocol.Done in Paris this 28th day of August 1952, in the English andFrench languages, both texts being equally authoritative, in a singleoriginal which shall be deposited in the archives of the Governmentof the United States of America. The Government of the UnitedStates of America shall transmit certified copies thereof to all thesignatory and acceding States.[There follow the signatures on behalf of the following NATOcountries—Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Greece, Iceland,Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Turkey,United Kingdom, United States.]

Part I. Final Text on the NATO Agreements on Status C. PROTOCOL ON THE STATUS OF INTERNATIONAL MILITARY HEADQUARTERS SET UP PURSUANT TO THE NORTH ATLANTIC TREATY *

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Part I. Final Text on the NATO Agreements on Status C. PROTOCOL ON THE STATUS OF INTERNATIONAL MILITARY HEADQUARTERS SET UP PURSUANT TO THE NORTH ATLANTIC TREATY *

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