- •Diplomatic handbook Seventh Edition
- •Longman London and New York
- •Contents
- •Chapter I
- •Introduction
- •International organisations: accreditation
- •In the absence of a full diplomatic
- •Orders of precedence
- •Precedence between heads of diplomatic
- •Individual precedence within a mission
- •Individual precedence inter se of
- •Precedence of heads of mission within the
- •Immunities
- •Inviolability and immunity of premises
- •Inviolability of records, documents,
- •Immunity from criminal jurisdiction
- •Immunity from civil and administrative
- •Inviolability of correspondence
- •Inviolability of property
- •Relating to the consular post
- •Facilities, personal privileges and immunities
- •The united nations purposes and principles
- •Purposes
- •Principles
- •The general assembly
- •The security council
- •The economic and social council
- •The trusteeship council
- •The international court of justice
- •The secretary-general and the secretariat
- •Intergovernmental agencies related
- •Food and agriculture organisation
- •International atomic energy agency
- •International civil aviation organisation
- •International fund for agricultural development
- •International labour organisation
- •International maritime organisation
- •International telecommunications union
- •The international monetary fund
- •The world bank
- •United nations development programme
- •Universal postal union
- •World health organisation
- •World intellectual property organisation
- •World meteorological organisation
- •Subsidiary organisations
- •International law commission
- •International research and training
- •Institute for the advancement of women
- •Other consultative bodies
- •United nations children’s emergency fund
- •United nations environment programme
- •United nations fund for population activities
- •United nations high commission for refugees
- •International
- •Arab league/the league of arab states
- •Asia-pacific economic cooperation
- •Bank for international settlements
- •Black sea economic cooperation
- •Caribbean regional organisations the association of caribbean states
- •Central american common market
- •Central european initiative
- •Common market for eastern and southern africa
- •The commonwealth
- •Council of europe
- •Economic cooperation organisation
- •European free trade association/ european economic area
- •Indian ocean association for regional cooperation
- •Islamic conference organisation
- •Maghreb arab union
- •North american free trade agreement
- •North atlantic treaty organisation
- •Organisation of african unity
- •Organisation of american states
- •South pacific regional organisations
- •Visegrád group
- •Western european union
- •World trade organisation
- •Chapter 9
- •International law and
- •Definition and general principles
- •Treaties and treaty-making general principles
- •Types of treaties
- •The process of treaty-making
- •The form and content of treaties
- •The validity of treaties
- •The termination of treaties
- •Diplomatic asylum
- •Voting quorums and majority requirements
- •All male/female seating plan: host/hostess and seven guests
- •Invitations
- •Introducing people
- •Visiting cards
- •International
- •Islamic festivals
- •1. The ozone layer
- •2. Global warming and the
- •3. Biodiversity
- •4. The preservation of forests
International
ORGANISATIONS AND
AGREEMENTS OUTSIDE
THE UNITED NATIONS
Arab league/the league of arab states
The League of Arab States is an association of states having a common heritage and mutual interests, based on the Cairo Pact of the League of Arab States in 1945, supplemented by the 1959 Treaty of Mutual Defence and Cooperation. The objects of the League are to strengthen the bonds between member countries; to coordinate their political activities so as to ensure their independence and sovereignty, and to promote the interests of Arab countries. It also seeks close collaboration in the fields of culture, health, social welfare, transport and communications, passports, visas and nationality laws, and economic and financial matters including trade, customs, currency, agriculture and industry; and provides that in the event of aggression or a threat of aggression a member state may request a meeting of the Council of the League. The members are Algeria, Bahrain, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. The League of Arab States has observer status in the General Assembly and in its subsidiary organisations; and the Secretariat and Headquarters of the League are in Cairo.
Asia-pacific economic cooperation
The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) was formed in 1989 in response to the growing interdependence among Asia-Pacific economies. Its objectives are to sustain economic growth of the APEC region and of the world; to enhance positive gains by encouraging the flow of goods, services, capital and technology; to develop and strengthen the open multilateral trading system and reduce those barriers to trade in goods and services that are inconsistent with the World Trade Organisation principles. The three pillars of APEC are trade and investment liberalisation; trade and investment facilitation; and economic and technical cooperation, the latter aiming to assist the developing member countries in enhancing their economic progress so that they will be in a position to take part in the trade and investment liberalisation process. A specific objective is to achieve free trade and investment in the Asia-Pacific area by the year 2020, with industrialised countries achieving this goal by 2010. Special emphasis is also placed on increasing the role of the private sector in the development of the area.
Ministerial Meetings are held every year, and subjects discussed have included education; energy; the environment and sustainable development; finance; human resources development; science and technology cooperation; small and medium enterprises; the telecommunication and information industry; trade; and transportation. In addition, there are ten Working Groups, namely fisheries; human resources development: industrial science and technology; marine resource conservation; regional energy cooperation; telecommunications; tourism; trade and investment data; trade promotion; and transportation.
The APEC members are Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Indonesia, Japan, Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Singapore, Chinese Taipei, Thailand and the United States of America. The ASEAN Secretariat, the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (PECC) and the South Pacific Forum (SPF) have observer status. The Secretariat of APEC, headed by the Executive Director, is in Singapore.
ASSOCIATION OF SOUTH-EAST
ASIAN NATIONS
ASEAN was established in Bangkok on 8 August 1967, founding members being Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Singapore. Brunei Darussalam joined in 1984, Vietnam in 1995, Laos and Myanmar in 1997. Cambodia’s application for membership in 1997 was deferred. The aims of the Association are primarily to accelerate the economic growth, social progress and cultural development in the region and to promote regional peace and stability.
Areas of cooperation include political, security, economic, functional and external relations. ASEAN’s major political initiatives include the Declaration on the Zone of Peace, Freedom and Neutrality (ZOPFAN) of 1971, the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in South-East Asia (TAC) in 1976 and the Treaty on the South-East Asia Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone (SEANWFZ) of 1995. The ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), established in 1994, aims to promote political and security dialogues in the Asia-Pacific region.
Economic cooperation includes trade and investment; industry; food, agriculture and forestry; financial and banking services; transport and communications, tourism, minerals and energy; and private sector participation. In 1992, ASEAN entered into a Common Effective Preferential Tariff (CEPT) scheme for the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) which is on course to reduce tariff rates to 0-5 percent by the year 2000 and to eliminate tariffs completely by 2003. All manufactured products, including capital goods, and processed and unprocessed agricultural products are included in the CEPT scheme. ASEAN is also undertaking trade facilitation measures such as elimination of non-tariff barriers, harmonisation of tariff nomenclature, customs procedures and valuation. Other functional areas involve cooperation in science and technology; environment; culture and information; social developments and drugs and narcotics control.
A major initiative is the establishment in 1995 of the ASEAN Mekong Basin Development Corporation to assist in the development of countries in the basin, particularly Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar. Sectors of cooperation include infrastructure, trade and investment-generating activities, agriculture, forestry and mineral resources, industries, tourism, human resource development, and science and technology; Expert Working Groups have been set up on Finance to consider funding modalities, technical assistance, pre-feasibility and feasibility studies, equity and debts; and on the Rail Link (under consideration) between Singapore and Kunming in China.
ASEAN’s external relations are focused on two organisations:
The ASEAN Regional Forum
The ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) was established in 1992 in order to promote external dialogue on enhancing security in the region. This is in addition to the ongoing dialogue on Asia-Pacific security. Members of the ARF are the ASEAN members, the ASEAN observer Papua New Guinea, and ASEAN Dialogue Partners namely, Australia, Canada, China, India, the EU, Japan, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea, Russia and the United States of America. The Forum endorsed the purposes and principles of the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in South-East Asia as a code of conduct governing relations among states in the region; agreed to concentrate on Confidence Building Measures in order to develop a more predictable and constructive pattern of relations for the Asia Pacific region, to concentrate on Preventive Diplomacy and to establish the mechanism for conflict resolution.
Asia-Europe Meeting
The Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) was conceived as ASEAN’s initiative with a view to redressing the 'missing link' between Asia and Europe, and its first Asia-Europe Meeting was held in Bangkok on 1-2 March 1996 attended by the Heads of State and Government: it was the first high-level meeting between leaders of Asia and Europe. The Meeting recognised that the ASEM process needed to be open and evolutionary, and that inter-sessional activities were necessary although they need not be institutionalised. To date, the ASEM has identified seventeen projects/programmes relating, inter alia, to the economies, the environment, science and technology, political, cultural and development cooperation undertaken by both regions. These projects are at various levels of implementation, and include the Trans-Asian Rail Link between Singapore and Kunming in China and the Asia-Europe University Exchange Program. The members of ASEM are China, Japan, Republic of Korea, the fifteen member states of the European Union and the President of the European Commission, and the member states of ASEAN.
Organisational structure of ASEAN
The Meeting of Heads of Government is the highest decision-making body of ASEAN, and there are thirteen sectoral Ministerial Meetings including the annual meetings of the Foreign Ministers and of the Economic Ministers. The ASEAN Secretariat, headed by the Secretary-General, is in Jakarta.