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ANNEX I
I.--THE BACKGROUND
Position up to the end of 1945
1. Before 1939 there were few international organisations (such as the League of Nations, the International Labour Office, the Universal Postal Union and the International Telecommunication Union), but during and after the Second World War the creating of international organisations on a large scale began.
2. The status of these new creations gave rise to a number of problems and at the Conferences at which these organisations were set up the United Kingdom Government of the day decided, in company with most other Governments, that the privileges and immunities of these organisations should be fixed by international agreement. It was accepted that legislative action in respect of them would be necessary in the United Kingdom. Consequently the Diplomatic Privileges (Extension) Act, 1944, was passed, and between 1944 and 1946 a number of Orders in Council were made under its provisions.
B.-1945-1950. Action in the United Nations and the United Kingdom
3. The General Assembly of the United Nations in 1945-46 dealt with the immunities and privileges of the United Nations. As a result, the General Con- vention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations was drawn up. In addition, the General Assembly, largely at the instigation of the United Kingdom Delegation, passed a resolution providing for the unification of the privileges and immunities of all organisations, which were or which were to become Specialised Agencies of the United Nations. The object was to prevent such organisations from obtaining excessive privileges and immunities and to ensure that those which it was considered necessary to accord should be uniform in character.
4. The General Convention on Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations was found to require a new Act of Parliament amending the Act of 1944, and the Diplomatic Privileges (Extension) Act, 1946, was accordingly passed. Parliament also approved the conception of unification of the privileges and immunities of the Specialised Agencies. An undertaking was given by the then government to the House of Commons that certain privileges which could be given to Specialised Agencies should not be given to other international organisations unless the matter had been specially brought to the attention of Parliament.
5. The General Assembly of the United Nations adopted at its second session in 1947 a " Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the Specialised Agencies of the United Nations." This provides a series of standard clauses and a series of annexes containing the modifications of these standard clauses for each Agency, the Agency having the final say in the drafting of its own annex. For their part, Governments bind themselves to give the specified privileges and immunities to a Specialised Agency on their accession to the Convention in respect of that Agency.
6. Between 1946 and 1950 the Government of the day acceded to the Con- vention in respect of a number of Specialised Agencies, each accession requiring an Order in Council to implement it. Under the 1946 Act a number of further Orders in Council were made in this way and until 1950 gave rise to no difficulty. (A list of these Orders is given at Annex II.)
C.-Privileges and Immunities for the Council of Europe—1950
7. In 1950 an amendment to the Act of 1946 became necessary because the members of the Consultative Assembly of the Council of Europe, although they represented their countries, did not represent their Governments. The amending Act, as finally approved by Parliament, lays down that a draft of any Order in Council conferring immunities and privileges upon an international organisation shall be laid before Parliament, and that the draft shall not be submitted to Her Majesty except in pursuance of an address presented by each House of Parliament praying that the Order be made. This provision was repeated in the International Organisations (Immunities and Privileges) Act, 1950, which now consolidates the theprivious 2s.
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