The Parties to the North Atlantic Treaty
signed in Washington on 4th April, 1949,
Considering that international military
Headquarters may be established in their territories, by
separate arrangement, under the North Atlantic Treaty,
and
Desiring to define the status of such Headquarters and of the
personnel thereof within the North Atlantic Treaty
area,
Have agreed to the present Protocol to the Agreement
signed in London on 19th June, 1951, regarding the Status of
their Forces:
Article I
In the present Protocol the expression
a) "the Agreement" means the Agreement signed
in London on 19th June, 1951, by the Parties to the North
Atlantic Treaty regarding the status of their
Forces;
b) "Supreme Headquarters" means Supreme
Headquarters Allied Powers in Europe, Headquarters of the
Supreme Allied Commander Atlantic and any equivalent
international military Headquarters set up pursuant to the
North Atlantic Treaty;
c) "Allied Headquarters" means any Supreme
Headquarters and any international military Headquarters set up
pursuant to the North Atlantic Treaty which is immediately
subordinate to a Supreme Headquarters;
d) "North Atlantic Council" means the Council
established by Article IX of the North Atlantic Treaty or any
of its subsidiary bodies authorised to act on its
behalf.
Article II
Subject to the following provisions of this Protocol,
the Agreement shall apply to Allied Headquarters in the
territory of a Party to the present Protocol in the North
Atlantic Treaty area, and to the military and civilian
personnel of such Headquarters and their dependents included in
the definitions in sub-paragraphs a., b. and c. of paragraph 1
of Article III of this Protocol, when such personnel are
present in any such territory in connection with their official
duties or, in the case of dependents, the official duties of
their spouse or parent.
Article III
1. For the purpose of applying the Agreement to an
Allied Headquarters the expressions 'force',
'civilian component' and 'dependent', wherever
they occur in the Agreement shall have the meanings set out
below:
a) "force" means the personnel attached to
the Allied Headquarters who belong to the land, sea or air
armed services of any Party to the North Atlantic
Treaty;
b) "civilian component" means civilian
personnel who are not stateless persons, nor nationals of any
State which is not a Party to the Treaty, nor nationals of, nor
ordinarily resident in the receiving State, an who
are
(i) attached to the Allied Headquarters and in the
employ of an armed service of a Party to the North Atlantic
Treaty or
(ii) (ii) in such categories of civilian personnel in
the employ of the Allied Headquarters as the North Atlantic
Council shall decide;
c) "dependent" means the spouse of a member
of a force or civilian component, as defined in sub-paragraphs
a. and b. of this paragraph, or a child of such member
depending on him or her support.
2. An Allied Headquarters shall be considered to be a
force for the purposes of Article II, paragraph 2 of Article V,
paragraph 10 of Article VII, paragraphs 2,3,4,7 and 8 of
Article IX, and Article XIII, of the Agreement.
Article IV
The rights and obligations which the Agreement gives to
or imposes upon the sending State or its authorities in respect
of its forces or their civilian components or dependents shall,
in respect of an Allied Headquarters and its personnel and
their dependents to whom the Agreement applies in accordance
with Article II of the present Protocol, be vested in or
attached to the appropriate Supreme Headquarters and the
authorities responsible under it, except that:
a) the right which is given by Article VII of the
Agreement to the military authorities of the sending State to
exercise criminal and disciplinary jurisdiction shall be vested
in the military authorities of the State, if any, to whose
military law the person concerned is subject;
b) the obligations imposed upon the sending state or
its authorities by Article II, paragraph 4 of Article III,
paragraphs 5 a. and 6 a. of Article VII paragraphs 9 and 10 of
Article VIII, and Article XIII, of the Agreement, shall attach
both to the Allied Headquarters and to any State whose armed
service, or any member or employee of whose armed service, or
the dependent of such member or employee, is
concerned;
c) for the purposes of paragraphs 2 a. and 5 of Article
III, and Article XIV, of the Agreement the sending State shall
be, in the case of members of a force and their dependents, the
State to whose armed service the member belongs, or, in the
case of members of a civilian component and their dependents,
the State, if any, by whose armed service the member is
employed;
d) the obligations imposed on the sending State by
virtue of paragraphs 6 and 7 of Article VIII of the Agreement
shall attach to the State to whose armed service the person
belongs whose act or omission has given rise to the claim or,
in the case of a member of a civilian component, to the State
by whose armed service he is employed or, if there is no such
State, to the Allied Headquarters of which the person concerned
is a member.
Both the State, if any, to which obligations attach
under this paragraph and the Allied Headquarters concerned
shall have the rights of the sending State in connection with
the appointment of an arbitrator under paragraph 8 of Article
VIII.
Article V
Every member of an Allied Headquarters shall have a
personal identity card issued by the Headquarters showing
names, date and place of birth, nationality, rank or grade,
number (if any), photograph and period of validity. This card
must be presented on demand.
Article VI
1. The obligations to waive claims imposed on the
Contracting Parties by Article VIII of the Agreement shall
attach both to the Allied Headquarters and to any Party to this
Protocol concerned.
2. For the purposes of paragraphs 1 and 2 of Article
VIII of the Agreement,
a) property owned by an Allied Headquarters or by a
Party to this Protocol and used by an Allied Headquarters shall
be deemed to be property owned by a Contracting Party and used
by its armed services;
b) damage caused by a member of a force or civilian
component as defined in paragraph 1 of Article III of this
Protocol or by any other employee of an Allied Headquarters
shall be deemed to be damage caused by a member or employee of
the armed services of a Contracting Party;
c) the definition of the expression 'owned by a
Contacting Party' in paragraph 3 of Article VIII shall
apply in respect of an Allied Headquarters.
3. The claims to which paragraph 5 of Article VIII of
the Agreement applies shall include claims (other than
contractual claims and claims to which paragraphs 6 or 7 of
that Article apply) arising out of acts or omissions of any
employees of an Allied Headquarters, or out of any other act,
omission or occurrence for which an Allied Headquarters is
legally responsible, and causing in the territory of a
receiving State to third parties, other than any of the Parties
to this Protocol.
Article VII
1. The exemption from taxation accorded under Article X
of the Agreement to members of a force or civilian component in
respect of their salaries and emoluments shall apply, as
regards personnel of an Allied Headquarters within the
definitions in paragraph 1 a. and b. (i) of Article 3 of this
Protocol, to salaries and emoluments paid to them as such
personnel by the armed service to which they belong or by which
they are employed, except that this paragraph shall not exempt
any such member or employee from taxation imposed by a State of
which he is a national.
2. Employees of an Allied Headquarters of categories
agreed by the North Atlantic Council shall be exempted from
taxation on the salaries and emoluments paid to them by the
Allied Headquarters in their capacity as such employees. Any
Party to the present Protocol may, however, conclude an
arrangement with the Allied Headquarters whereby such Party
will employ and assign to the Allied Headquarters all of its
nationals (except, if such Party so desires, any not ordinarily
resident within its territory) who are to serve on the staff of
the Allied Headquarters and pay the salaries and emoluments of
such persons from its own funds, at a scale fixes by it. The
salaries and emoluments so paid may be taxed by the Party
concerned but shall be exempted from taxation by any other
Party. If such an arrangement is entered into by any Party to
the present Protocol and is subsequently modified or
terminated, Parties to the present Protocol shall no longer be
bound under the first sentence of this paragraph to exempt from
taxation the salaries and emoluments paid to their
nationals.
Article VIII
1. For the purpose of facilitating the establishment,
construction, maintenance and operation of Allied Headquarters,
these Headquarters shall be relieved, so far as practicable,
from duties and taxes, affecting expenditures by them in the
interest of common defence and for their official and exclusive
benefit, and each Party to the present Protocol shall enter
into negotiations with any Allied Headquarters operating in its
territory for the purpose of concluding an agreement to give
effect to this provision.
2. An Allied Headquarters shall have the rights granted
to a force under Article XI of the Agreement subject to the
same conditions.
3. The provisions in paragraphs 5 and 6 of Article XI
of the Agreement shall not apply to nationals of the receiving
States, unless such nationals belong to the armed services of a
Party to this Protocol other than the receiving
State.
4. The expression "duties and taxes" in this
Article does not include charges for services
rendered.
Article IX
Except in so far as the North Atlantic Council may
decide otherwise,
a) any assets acquired from the international funds of
an Allied Headquarters under its capital budget and no longer
required by the Headquarters shall be disposed of under
arrangements approved by the North Atlantic Council and the
proceeds shall be distributed among or credited to the Parties
to the North Atlantic Treaty in the proportions in which they
have contributed to the capital costs of the Headquarters. The
receiving State shall have the prior right to acquire any
immovable property so disposed of in its territory provided
that it offers terms no less favourable than those offered by
any third party;
b) any land, buildings or fixed installations provided
for the use of an Allied Headquarters by the receiving State
without charge to the Headquarters (other than a nominal
charge) and no longer required by the Headquarters shall be
handed back to the receiving State, and any increase or loss in
the value of the property provided by the receiving State
resulting from its use by the Headquarters shall be determined
by the North Atlantic Council (taking into consideration any
applicable law of the receiving State) and distributed among or
credited or debited to the Parties to the North Atlantic Treaty
in the proportions in which they have contributed to the
capital costs of the Headquarters.
Article X
Each Supreme Headquarters shall possess juridical
personality; it shall have the capacity to conclude contracts
and to acquire and dispose of property. The receiving State
may, however, make the exercise of such capacity subject to
special arrangements between it and the Supreme Headquarters or
any subordinate Allied Headquarters acting on behalf of the
Supreme Headquarters.
Article XI
1. Subject to the provisions of Article VIII of the
Agreement, a Supreme Headquarters may engage in legal
proceedings as claimant or defendant. However, the receiving
State and the Supreme Headquarters or any subordinate Allied
Headquarters authorized by it may agree that the receiving
State shall act on behalf of the Supreme Headquarters in any
legal proceedings to which that Headquarters is a party before
the courts of the receiving State.
2. No measure of execution or measure directed to the
seizure or attachment of its property or funds shall be taken
against any Allied Headquarters, except for the purposes of
paragraph 6 a. of Article VII and Article XIII of the
Agreement.
Article XII
1. To enable it to operate its international budget, an
Allied Headquarters may hold currency of any kind and operate
accounts in any currency.
2. The Parties to the present Protocol shall, at the
request of an Allied Headquarters, facilitate transfers of the
funds of such Headquarters from one country to another and the
conversion of any currency held by an Allied Headquarters into
any other currency, when necessary to meet the requirements of
any Allied Headquarters.
Article XIII
The archives and other official documents of an Allied
Headquarters kept in premises used by those Headquarters or in
the possession of any properly authorized member of the
Headquarters shall be inviolable, unless the Headquarters has
waived this immunity. The Headquarters shall, at the request of
the receiving State and in the presence of a representative of
that State, verify the nature of any documents to confirm that
they are entitled to immunity under this Article.
Article XIV
1. The whole or any part of the present Protocol or of
the Agreement may be applied, by decision of the North Atlantic
Council, to any international military Headquarters or
organization (not included in the definitions in paragraphs b.
and c. of Article I of this Protocol) which is established
pursuant to the North Atlantic Treaty.
2. When the European Defence Community comes into
being, the present Protocol may be applied to the personnel of
the European Defence Forces attached to an Allied Headquarters
and their dependents at such time and in such manner as may be
determined by the North Atlantic Council.
Article XV
All differences between the Parties to the present
Protocol or between any such Parties and any Allied
Headquarters relating to the interpretation or application of
the Protocol shall be settled by negotiation between the
parties in dispute without recourse to any outside
jurisdiction. Except where express provision is made to the
contrary in the present Protocol or in the Agreement,
differences which cannot be settled by direct negotiation shall
be referred to the North Atlantic Council.
Article XVI
1. Articles XV and XVII to XX of the Agreement shall
apply as regards the present Protocol as if they were an
integral part thereof, but so that the Protocol may be
reviewed, suspended, ratified, acceded to, denounced or
extended in accordance with those provisions independently from
the Agreement.
2. The present Protocol may be supplemented by
bilateral agreement between the receiving State and a Supreme
Headquarters, and the authorities of a receiving State and a
Supreme Headquarters may agree to give effect, by
administrative means in advance of ratification, to any
provisions of this Protocol or of the Agreement as applied by
it.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF the undersigned Plenipotentiaries
have signed the present Protocol.
DONE in Paris this 28th day of August 1952, in the
English and French languages, both texts being equally
authoritative, in a single original which shall be deposited in
the archives of the Government of the United States of America.
The Government of the United States of America shall transmit
certified copies thereof to all the signatory and acceding
States.
