TNAG-1281-FCO40-1632-Chinese-visa-office-in-Hong-Kong-1983 — Page 17

CONSULAR RELATIONS

Ord. No. 17/70.

A73

SECTION II.-FACILITIES, PRIVILEGES AND IMMUNITIES RELATING TO Career CONSULAR OFFICERS AND OTHER MEMBERS OF A CONSULAR POST.

ARTICLE 41.

Personal inviolability of consular officers.

1. Consular officers shall not be liable to arrest or detention pending trial, except in the case of a grave crime and pursuant to a decision by the competent judicial authority.

2. Except in the case specified in paragraph 1 of this Article, consular officers shall not be committed to prison or liable to any other form of restriction on their personal freedom save in execution of a judicial decision of final effect.

ARTICLE 43.

Immunity from jurisdiction.

1. Consular officers and consular employees shall not be amenable to the jurisdiction of the judicial or administrative authorities of the receiving State in respect of acts performed in the exercise of consular functions.

2. The provisions of paragraph 1 of this Article shall not, however, apply in respect of a civil action either:

(a) arising out of a contract concluded by a consular officer or a consular employee in which he did not contract expressly or impliedly as an agent of the sending State; or

(b) by a third party for damage arising from an accident in the

receiving State caused by a vehicle, vessel or aircraft.

1.

ARTICLE 44.

Liability to give evidence.

Members of a consular post may be called upon to attend as witnesses in the course of judicial or administrative proceedings. A con- sular employee or a member of the service staff shall not, except in the cases mentioned in paragraph 3 of this Article, decline to give evidence. If a consular officer should decline to do so, no coercive measure or penalty may be applied to him.

2. The authority requiring the evidence of a consular officer shall avoid interference with the performance of his functions. It may, when possible, take such evidence at his residence or at the consular post or accept a statement from him in writing.

3. Members of a consular post are under no obligation to give evidence concerning matters connected with the exercise of their functions. or to produce official correspondence and documents relating thereto. They are also entitled to decline to give evidence as expert witnesses with regard to the law of the sending State.