PRIVILEGES AND IMMUNITIES ACT

Act 13/1972, 22/2001.

ARRANGEMENT OF SECTIONS

PART I

PRELIMINARY Section

1. Short title.

PART II

DIPLOMATICPRIVILEGESAND IMMUNITIES

3. Application of Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.
4. Withdrawal of privileges and immunities.

PART III

CONSULARPRIVILEGESANDIMMUNITIES

5. Application of Vienna Convention on Consular Relations.
6. Withdrawal of privileges and immunities.

PART IV

PRIVILEGESAND IMMUNITIES OF INTERNATIONALORGANIZATIONSANDPERSONS CONNECTED THEREWITH

7. Privileges and immunities of specified international organizations.
8. Privileges and immunities of representatives attending international conferences.
9. Privileges and immunities of international courts.

PART V

GENERAL

10. List of persons entitled to privileges and immunities.
11. Exemption from special restrictions on occupation of immovable property.
12. Identity cards.
13. Identification plates.

SCHEDULES

First Schedule: Articles of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations Having the Force of Law in Zimbabwe.

Second Schedule: Articles of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations Having the Force of Law in Zimbabwe.

Third Schedule: Privileges and Immunities of International Organizations and Persons Connected Therewith.

AN ACT to confer certain privileges and immunities on foreign States and the diplomatic and consular representatives of foreign States, on certain international organizations and courts and persons connected therewith and on certain other persons; and to provide for matters incidental to or connected with the foregoing.

[Date of commencement: 1st December, 1972.]

PART I

PRELIMINARY

1    Short title

This Act may be cited as the Privileges and Immunities Act [Chapter 3:03].

                             2    Interpretation

In this Act—

“Minister” means the Minister of Foreign Affairs;

“mission” means a diplomatic mission of any State;

“Secretary” means the Secretary for Foreign Affairs;

“Vienna Convention on Consular Relations” means the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations signed at Vienna on the 24th April, 1963;

“Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations” means the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations signed at Vienna on the 18th April, 1961.

PART II

DIPLOMATICPRIVILEGESAND IMMUNITIES

                             3    Application of Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations

• Subject to this Act, the Articles of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations set out in the First Schedule shall have the force of law in Zimbabwe.
• In the Articles referred to in subsection (1)—

“agent of the receiving State” shall be construed as including a reference to any police officer or other person exercising a power of entry into any premises in Zimbabwe in terms of any enactment;

“member of the family”, in relation to any person, shall be construed as meaning—

• the spouse or any dependent child of that person; and
• any other person deemed by the Minister to be a member of the family in question; “national of the receiving State” shall be construed as a reference to a citizen of Zimbabwe; “receiving State” shall be construed as a reference to Zimbabwe.

• The references in Articles 37 and 38 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations to the extent to which any privileges or immunities are admitted by the receiving State and to additional privileges and immunities that may be granted by the receiving State shall be construed as referring respectively to the extent to which any privileges and immunities may be specified by the President, by notice in the Gazette, and to any additional privileges and immunities that may be so specified.

                             4    Withdrawal of privileges and immunities

• Where it appears to the President that the privileges and immunities accorded to a mission of Zimbabwe in any State, or to persons connected with that mission, are less than those conferred in terms of this Act or any other enactment in relation to the mission of that State or to persons connected with that mission, the President may, by notice in the Gazette, withdraw, modify or restrict, in relation to the mission of that State, or to persons connected with that mission, such of the privileges and immunities so conferred to such extent as appears to the President to be proper.
• The President may, by notice in the Gazette, repeal or amend any notice made in terms of subsection (1).