Practical Manual of the regime of privileges and immunities and other facilities

The practical Manual of the regime of privileges and immunities and other facilities has been compiled by the Permanent Mission of Switzerland to the United Nations Office and the other international organisations in Geneva. It is intended for the use of the permanent missions and international organisations and members of their personnel.

This manual, which is a translation from the French official version, contains information on the administrative rules and procedures to be followed by the permanent missions, the international organisations and the members of their personnel. Information which is contained in the manual is not yet exhaustive and will be developed progressively.

The information in the manual provides guidelines only. They have no legal validity and are in no way binding on the host State.

The regime of privileges and immunities granted to the permanent missions, the international organizations and to the members of their personnel rests in Switzerland on a legal foundation which includes the following:

• the Federal Act on the privileges, immunities, exemptions and financial contributions granted by Switzerland as host state (Host State Act) of 22 June 2007 entered into force on 1 January 2008 and the Host State Ordinance of 7 December 2007 entered into force on 1 January 2008,
• the headquarters agreements concluded with the international organizations,
• the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 18 April 1961, applied by analogy by the decisions of the Federal Council of 31 March 1948 and 20 May 1958,
• the practice of the Swiss government in respect of questions left open by the above mentioned texts.

The manual is intended to the permanent missions based in Geneva and the international organisations based in Switzerland and to the members of their personnel.

The term "permanent mission" refers to:

• the permanent missions to the United Nations Office at Geneva and to the other international organisations,
• the permanent missions to the World Trade Organisation,
• the permanent representations to the Conference on Disarmament,
• the permanent delegations of international organisations to international organisations,
• the observer offices,
• as well as the special missions.

The term "international organisations" refers to those with which the Swiss federal Council concluded a headquarters agreement.