Hong Kong Regulations

CONSULAR RELATIONS (ADDITIONAL PRIVILEGES AND IMMUNITIES) (VIETNAM) ORDER - SCHEDULE SCHEDULE

[sections 2 & 3]

PROVISIONS OF THE CONVENTION REFERRED TO IN THIS ORDER

Part I

Definitions

Article 1

Definitions

For the purposes of the present Convention, the following expressions shall
have the meanings hereunder assigned to them:

1. "Consular post" means any consulate-general, consulate, vice-consulate or
consular agency;

..........
3. "Head of consular post" means the consul-general, consul, vice-consul or
consular agent who is charged by the sending State to head a consular post;

4. "Consular officer" means a consul-general, vice consul-general, consul,
vice-consul, consular attache or consular agent;

5. "Consular employee" means any person who performs administrative and
technical service at a consular post;

6. "Member of the service staff" means any person employed in the domestic
service of a consular post;

7. "Members of the consular post" means consular officers, consular  employees
and members of the service staff;

..........
9. "Member of the private staff" means any person who is employed in the
private service of a member of the consular post;

10. "Consular premises" means the buildings or parts of buildings and the land
ancillary thereto, irrespective of ownership, used exclusively for the
purposes of the consular post;

..........
12. "Official correspondence" of a consular post means all the correspondence
relating to a consular post and its functions;

13. "Member of the family" means the spouse of a member of the consular post
and their minor children who live with them in the same household;

Part III

Facilities, privileges and immunities

Article 12

Inviolability of the consular premises and the residences of consular 
officers

1. Consular premises and the residences of consular officers shall be
inviolable. The authorities of the receiving State shall not enter the
consular premises and the residences of consular officers without the consent
of the head of the consular post or the head of the diplomatic mission of the
sending State in the receiving State or of a person designated by one of them.

Article 13

Exemption from taxation of consular premises and consular properties

1. The receiving State shall exempt the followings from all dues and taxes:

   (a)  consular premises and residences of the members of the consular  post
        acquired in the name of the sending State or its representative and
        transactions or instruments thereto;

   (b)  consular facilities and means of transport acquired exclusively for
        official purposes as well as their acquisition, possession or
        maintenance.

2. The provisions of paragraph 1 of this Article shall not apply in respect
of:

   (a)  charges levied for specific services;

   (b)  dues and taxes collectable under the laws and regulations of the
        receiving State from a person who concludes a contract with the
        sending State or its representative.

Article 16

Freedom of communication

2. The official correspondence of the consular post shall be inviolable. The
consular bag shall be neither opened nor detained. The packages constituting
the consular bag shall bear visible external marks of their character and may
contain only official correspondence and documents or articles intended
exclusively for official use.

3. The consular courier shall be provided with an official document indicating
his status and the number of packages constituting the consular bag. Except
with the consent of the receiving State, he shall only be a national of the
sending State and not be a permanent resident of the receiving State. In the
performance of his functions, the consular courier shall be protected by the
receiving State. He shall enjoy personal inviolability and shall not be liable
to any form of arrest, detention or any other form of limitation of his
personal freedom.

Article 17

Personal inviolability of consular officers

Consular officers shall enjoy personal invioliability and can not be liable to
arrest or detention or to any other form of limitation of their personal
freedom.

Article 18

Immunity from jurisdiction

1. A consular officer shall be immune from the judicial or administrative
jurisdiction of the receiving State, except in civil proceedings:

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

   (b)  by a third party for damage arising from an accident in the receiving
        State caused by a vehicle, vessel or aircraft;

   (c)  concerning private immovable property situated in the territory of the
        receiving State, unless the consular officer holds it on behalf of the
        sending State and for the purposes of the consular post;

   (d)  concerning private succession in which the consular officer is
        involved as executor, administrator, heir or legatee as private person
        and not on behalf of the sending State;

   (e)  arising out of any professional or commercial activity exercised by
        the consular officer in the receiving State outside his official
        functions.

2. No measures of execution may be taken in respect of a consular  officer
except in the cases referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article and provided
that the measures concerned can be taken without infringing the inviolability
of his person or of his residence.

3. Consular employees and members of the service staff shall be immune from
judicial or administrative jurisdiction of the receiving State in respect of
any act in the performance of their functions, except in civil proceedings
referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article.

Article 19

Liability to give evidence

1. A consular officer is under no obligation to give evidence as a witness.

.......... 3. A consular employee or a member of the service staff 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. He is also entitled to decline to give evidence as expert
witnesses with regard to the laws of the sending State.

Article 20

Waiver of privileges and immunities

1. The sending State may waive, with regard to a member of the consular post,
any of the privileges and immunities provided for in Articles 17, 18 and 19 of
this Convention. The waiver shall in all cases be express and shall be
communicated to the receiving State in writing.

2. The initiation of proceedings by a member of the consular post in a matter
where he might enjoy immunity from jurisdiction under Article 18 of the
present Convention shall preclude him from invoking immunity from jurisdiction
in respect of any counter-claim directly connected with the principal claim.

3. The waiver of immunity from jurisdiction in respect of civil or
administrative proceedings shall not be deemed to imply the waiver of immunity
from the measures of execution resulting from the judicial decision; in
respect of such measures, a separate waiver in writing shall be necessary.

Article 25

Exemptions from customs duties and inspection

1. In accordance with such laws and regulations as it may adopt, the receiving
State shall permit entry and export of and grant exemption from all customs
duties, taxes and related charges, other than charges for storage, cartage and
similar services, on:

..........

   (c)  articles imported at the time of first installation for the personal
        use of a consular employee of the consular post, including household
        articles intended for his establishment.

2. Articles referred to in sub-paragraphs ... (c) of paragraph 1 of this
Article shall not exceed the quantities necessary for direct use by the person
concerned.

Article 28

Privileges and immunities of family members

1. Family members of a consular officer and family members of a
consular employee of the consular post shall enjoy respectively the privileges
and immunities to which the consular officer and the consular  employee are
respectively entitled under the provisions of this Convention.

2. Family members of a member of the service staff of the consular  post shall
enjoy the privileges and immunities to which the member of the  service staff
is entitled under the Article 27 of this Convention*, except those who are
nationals or permanent residents of the receiving State, or who carry on any
private gainful occupation in the receiving State.

Article 29

Persons who shall not enjoy privileges and immunities

1. Consular employees and members of the service staff of the consular post
who are nationals or permanent residents of the receiving State shall not
enjoy the privileges and immunities provided for in this Convention, subject
to the provisions of paragraph 3 of Article 19 of this Convention.

2. Family members of the person mentioned in paragraph 1 of this Article shall
not enjoy the privileges and immunities provided for in this Convention.

Article 30

Beginning and end of consular privileges and immunities

1. Every member of a consular post shall enjoy the privileges and immunities
provided for in the present Convention from the moment he enters the territory
of the receiving State on the proceeding to take up his post or, if already in
its territory, from the moment when he enters on his duties with the
consular post.

2. Family members of a member of the consular post and members of his private
staff shall receive the privileges and immunities provided for in the present
Convention from the date from which he enjoys privileges and immunities in
accordance with paragraph 1 of this Article or from the date of their entry
into the receiving State or from the date of their becoming a member of such
family or private staff, whichever is the latest.

3. When the functions of a member of the consular post have come to an end,
his privileges and immunities and those of a member of his family or a member
of his private staff shall normally cease at the moment when the person
concerned leaves the receiving State or on the expiry of a reasonable period
in which to do so, whichever is the sooner, but shall subsist until that time,
even in the case of armed conflict. In the case of persons referred to in
paragraph 2 of this Article, their privileges and immunities shall come to an
end when they cease to belong to the household or to be in the service of a
member of the consular post provided, however, that if such persons intend
leaving the receiving State within a reasonable period thereafter, their
privileges and immunities shall subsist until the time of their departure.

4. In the event of the death of a member of the consular post, the members of
his family shall continue to enjoy the privileges and immunities accorded to
them until they leave the receiving State or until the expiry of a reasonable
period enabling them to do so, whichever is the sooner.

Article 33

Special provisions concerning private gainful occupation

2. Privileges and immunities provided in this Part shall not be accorded:

   (a)  to consular employees or to members of the service staff, who carry on
        any private gainful occupation in the receiving State;

   (b)  to members of the family of a person referred to in sub-paragraph (a)
        of this paragraph or to members of his private staff;

   (c)  to members of the family of a member of a consular post, who
        themselves carry on any private gainful occupation in the receiving
        State.
        ___________________________________________________________________________
        ______ Note:

* Article 27 reads as follows -

"The receiving State shall exempt members of the consular post from all
personal services and all public service of any kind whatsoever, as well as
from the military obligations, such as those connected with military
requisitioning, military contributions and billeting." "Consular post" "Head
of consular post" "Consular officer" "Consular employee" "Member of the
service staff" "Members of the consular post" "Member of the private staff"
"Consular premises" "Official correspondence" "Member of the family"