Committee on Relations

with Host Country

212^th Meeting (PM)

HOST COUNTRY COMMITTEE DISCUSSES NEW PROVISIONAL PARKING PROGRAMME

Issuance of Visas, Real Estate Taxes also Raised by Delegations

The United States Mission to the United Nations and the City of New York had agreed on a provisional diplomatic parking programme, the Committee on Relations with the Host Country was told this afternoon.

As part of that agreement, planned for implementation on 1 November, each mission would be provided with two dedicated parking spaces, located in the closest possible proximity to the mission building.  Those spaces would be marked with numbers and available to the missions 24 hours a day, seven days a week.  Each mission would be given decals for two “service vehicles” and one delivery vehicle, which would allow the vehicles bearing those decals to park in the mission’s spaces.  In addition, 35 diplomatic delivery spaces, located in areas where there were missions or consulates, would be available.

The agreement, he said, grew out of discussions with the Committee’s working group on diplomatic parking that had taken place in the spring of 1997.  There were separate provisions for the United Nations diplomatic corps, and the New York consular corps.  After the beginning of the programme, he said, illegally parked vehicles would be stringently ticketed, including mission vehicles that lacked decals and were parked in the mission spaces.  Missions that amassed many tickets and failed to pay them would risk losing their spaces and decals.  An annex to the proposal contained an offer extended by the City of New York to let old tickets be paid off at a reduced rate.

Responding to the proposal, most speakers thanked the City of New York and the host country for their efforts on the issue.  However, most also expressed strong reservations about the legality and fairness of the proposal.  The representative of Costa Rica said that it was possible that the substance and the form of the Headquarters Agreement might be changed by the parking proposal.  She asked that it be submitted for a legal opinion.

Echoing that opinion, the representative of the Russian Federation said it had always felt that resolution of the parking issue was an important part of the obligations of the host country.  A dialogue according to various interests and the standards of international law was needed, and in that view, the host country proposal was welcome.  He was concerned, however, over the sanctions that might be levied as part of the programme, which were not consistent with international law and the privileges and immunities of diplomats.  The new programme must be subject to a careful legal analysis, he said. 

Similar views were expressed by the representatives of Committee members of Côte d’Ivoire, Cuba and Libya, and the observer missions of Brazil, Pakistan, Benin, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Egypt, Ghana, Syria and Kuwait.  Many speakers said that diplomats were being unjustly vilified and blamed for New York’s severe traffic problems.  The representative of Singapore said the problem was not just one of misbehaving diplomats, but also of irregular, and often overzealous and absurd, enforcement of parking regulations.  It was the intention of her delegation to bring up those instances with the appropriate New York authorities, and to continue dialogue with the host country on the issue.

In his response to those speakers, the representative of the United States said he realized that the details of the parking programme had been only recently released, but if it were read carefully, many questions that had been raised would be answered, including the questions about international legality.  Making the two parking spaces available to each mission would resolve most diplomatic parking problems.  The concerns of missions were foremost in the minds of those who had worked on the problem, and he invited all those with further concerns to speak with his delegation -- quickly, because the programme would go into effect on

1 November.

It was true, he said, that diplomats had not been presented in the best light in the local media, relative to the parking issue.  That was due to a free press, and he apologized for any statements that had been found offensive.  He quoted Mayor Michael Bloomberg on high regard in which diplomats were held by the City of New York.  Diplomats were not being blamed for all of New York’s traffic problems, but all agreed that the parking problem was one that had to be dealt with.  He offered help in solving problems in particular instances, including removing vehicles improperly parked in diplomatic spaces.

Regarding parking tickets, he said, they should either be paid or protested, in the case of mistakes.  They should not be put away in the bottom of a drawer -- that was how penalties were accrued.  Concerning towing, all international legal conventions allowed towing of vehicles if such vehicles were creating safety hazards or were in danger for other reasons.

Following the response of the United States representative, the representative of Côte d’Ivoire requested that the implementation of the programme be postponed until the report of the Legal Counsel was made available.

Sotirios Zackheos (Cyprus), Chairman of the Committee, said that after the legal opinion of the United Nations Legal Counsel, Hans Corell was circulated, another meeting of the Committee would be called to resolve the matter.

       In other matters today, the representatives of Cuba, Iraq and Zimbabwe asked for resolution of problems in obtaining visas or re-entry visas for their nationals who wished to participate in United Nations activities. 

In addition, the representative of Libya updated the Committee on its efforts to resolve a matter of real estate taxes and accumulated interest charges imposed by New York City on seven floors of the Permanent Mission building of Libya, and the representative of Egypt raised another tax issue.

The representative of the United States addressed the visa problems raised by the representatives of Cuba and Iraq, saying that those visas that had been properly requested had been granted.  Regarding the taxes on the Libyan Mission,

the City of New York had been sent a letter by the United States Department of State that made clear that the Libyan Mission was exempt from such taxes and he considered the issue closed.  He said he would consult with the City of New York on the matter brought up by the representative of Egypt.  The issue of re-entry visas, raised by Zimbabwe was a new matter that would be carefully considered.  

The Committee will meet again at a date to be announced.

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