HOST COUNTRY COMMITTEE DISCUSSES PROGRESS IN NEW YORK CITY PARKING PROGRAMME
| Press Release HQ/633 |
Committee on Relations
With Host Country
221st Meeting (PM)
HOST COUNTRY COMMITTEE DISCUSSES PROGRESS IN NEW YORK CITY PARKING PROGRAMME
The Committee on Relations with the Host Country met today to address diplomatic use of motor vehicles, parking and related matters. It also elected a new Vice-Chairperson from Canada.
Reporting on the implementation of the New York Diplomatic Parking Programme, the Host Country representative said he had two good meetings with the City Commissioner’s Office, the most recent of which had been just last week. He was completely convinced that the City was prepared to address the implementation issues head on. Proof of that had been the steady decrease in the number of phone calls his office had received on parking issues.
Margaret Tiven, New York City Commissioner for the United Nations and Consular Corps, said that at the Committee’s last meeting (see Press Release HQ/632 of 29 April), she had listened carefully to delegation’s concerns about the Parking Programme. Since that time, her feeling was that the initial implementation of the programme had been largely successful. Her Office had increased the number of assigned diplomatic parking spaces to 530 -- the highest in New York City’s history. The programme had also increased the number of available diplomatic loading/shipping spaces.
Among other things, she said, there had been a noticeable decrease in the number of summonses issued to diplomats. At the same time, there had been an increase in the number of tows and summonses issued to non-diplomatic vehicles parked in assigned spaces. Those and other successes were serving the programme’s most important aims: maintaining the safety and security of all New York residents. The ongoing success of the programme was contingent on mutual dialogue and cooperation, particularly so that improvements were always in progress.
She went on to answer some specific concerns that delegations had raised during the Committee’s last meeting, noting chiefly that the City had increased the number of tow trucks assigned to moving unauthorized non-diplomatic vehicles parked in diplomatic spaces. She added that the city was also cracking down on the number of trucks that were parking in diplomat’s spots. She added that the New York City Commission continued it’s training courses for law enforcement officers on the privileges and immunities of diplomats. Over the past two years, such training had been provided to over 2,000 police officers.
Opening the discussion, the representative of the Russian Federation acknowledged that a lot of improvements had been made, for which he was thankful. The appeal system had begun to work more precisely and double parking near his mission had become rare, just as spaces for diplomats had been less frequently occupied by other vehicles. He hoped the current trend would be a steady one. However, some problems had not yet been solved, as the city had not yet fulfilled its responsibilities under the programme. Another problem was that a permanent representative could not park his or her car anywhere in the city when on business.
He said one of the most effective ways to resolve the problems was to create a working group composed of Committee representatives, representatives of the City and the authorities of the host country, as he had proposed during the last meeting. Because of the positive changes, it would be possible to postpone consideration of the proposal until the next meeting.
Also acknowledging that progress had been made, China’s representative diplomats still faced discriminatory penalties and abuse of power by the administrative authorities. As his mission could not recognize certain penalties, he hoped solutions could be found.
The representative of Cuba asked a technical question.
As the current Committee member and Vice-Chairperson Deborah Chatsis (Canada) was leaving, the Committee elected Hugh Adsett (Canada) to take her place as Vice-Chairperson.
The Committee on Relations with the Host Country was established in 1971 to deal with the security of diplomatic missions accredited to the United Nations, the safety of their personnel, and responsibilities with regard to diplomatic delegations. Other questions considered by the Committee include diplomatic privileges and immunities; transportation and parking; housing; activities to assist the diplomatic community; and public relations on behalf of United Nations aims within the community.
Current Committee members are: Bulgaria, Canada, China, Costa Rica, Côte d’Ivoire, Cuba, Cyprus, France, Honduras, Hungary, Iraq, Libya, Malaysia, Mali, Russian Federation, Senegal, Spain, United Kingdom and the host country, the United States.
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