The CAHDI is an intergovernmental committee which brings together the legal advisers of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of the member States of the Council of Europe as well as of a significant number of observer States and organisations. It is working to coordinate States’ activities in the field of public international law.

In 2013, the CAHDI held two meetings in order to examine topical questions of public international law, to exchange and, if appropriate, to coordinate the views of the States, respectively its 45^th meeting (Strasbourg, 25-26 March 2013) and its 46^th meeting (Strasbourg, 16-17 September 2013).

Adoption of legal opinions at the request of the Committee of Ministers

At the request of the Committee of Ministers, the CAHDI adopted in November 2013 by electronic means its opinion on Recommendation 2027 (2013) of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe – “European Union and Council of Europe human rights agendas: synergies, not duplication!”. The Committee of Ministers took this opinion into account when adopting its reply to the said recommendation.

Exchange of views on the request for observer status within the CAHDI submitted by Belarus

By letter dated 9 January 2013 and addressed to the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus requested the status of observer to the CAHDI. On 13 March 2013, the Secretary General informed the Committee of Ministers of his intention to consult the CAHDI on this issue. The CAHDI therefore held an exchange of views on the request for observer status submitted by Belarus at its 45^th meeting.

On 3 July 2013, the Committee of Ministers agreed to accede to the request by Belarus for observer status with the CAHDI.

Review of Council of Europe conventions

Pursuant to the decision of the Ministers’ Deputies of 10 April 2013 on the review of Council of Europe conventions in the light of the Secretary General’s report, the CAHDI drew up a work plan at its 46^th meeting for the follow-up of the conventions for which it had been given responsibility. These instruments were examined by the CAHDI at its meetings in 2014-2015.

European Observatory of Reservations to International Treaties

Pursuant to its terms of reference, the CAHDI is instructed to “continue its active role as the European Observatory of Reservations to International Treaties”. For this purpose, it regularly considers outstanding reservations and declarations to international treaties which are identified beforehand by the Public International Law Division and Treaty Office.

This examination allows members to initiate a reservations dialogue when there are doubts with regard to the admissibility of a reservation or a declaration. They can therefore exchange and discuss the relevance of objecting to the reservation/declaration, ask the reserving State for additional information on the reservation/declaration and the reasons for it or provide explanations when they are the authors of the said reservation/declaration.

This exercise has been welcomed on several occasions by Mr Alain Pellet, Special Rapporteur of the International Law Commission (ILC) on the topic of reservations to treaties, who has notably observed that the efforts of the CAHDI have borne fruit as member States coordinate more frequently their reactions to the reservations.

Immunities of States and international organisations

In 2013, the CAHDI intensified the examination of the issue of immunities of States and international organisations by placing several specific themes on its agenda.

Firstly, the CAHDI started examining the issue of “Service of process”, i.e. the procedure by which documents instituting a proceeding are transmitted and brought to the attention of the foreign State concerned. A questionnaire had been elaborated on this topic and counts to date several dozens of replies.

Secondly, the CAHDI placed on its agenda the issue of “Immunity of State owned cultural property on loan” in view of elaborating a draft declaration in support of the recognition of the customary nature of the pertinent provisions of the United Nations Convention on Jurisdictional Immunities of States and Their Property (2004) related to this question. This Declaration was presented at the 46^th meeting of the CAHDI as a non-legally binding document expressing a common understanding of opinio juris on the basic rule that certain kind of State property (cultural property on exhibition) enjoyed jurisdictional immunity. For an overview of the current state of signatures of this Declaration, please refer to the Internet page devoted to this Declaration. A questionnaire had also been elaborated on this topic and counts to date more than 20 replies.

Finally, the CAHDI initiated the examination of the issue of “Immunities of special missions”, i.e. the immunities of missions qualified as being temporary missions, representing the State, which are sent by one State to another State with the consent of the latter for the purpose of dealing with it on specific questions or of performing in relation to it a specific task. A questionnaire had also been elaborated on this topic and counts to date more than 20 replies.

Cooperation with other international entities

In 2013, the CAHDI pursued its exchanges of views with other international entities.

At its 45^th meeting, the members of the CAHDI held an exchange of views with Ms Sabine Bauer, Senior Legal Adviser of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) on the topic “OSCE: a process or an international organisation? OSCE – a unique place of international law in the making”. The exchanges focused notably on the historical overview of the development of the OSCE from a conference to an "organisation" with a more permanent organisational structure, on the legal status of the organisation and on the capacity of the OSCE to contribute to the development of international law.

Furthermore, at the initiative of the Principality of Liechtenstein, the Secretariat of the CAHDI co-organised a seminar in the margins of the 45^th meeting of the CAHDI on the “Ratification and implementation of the Kampala amendments on the crime of aggression on the European context”. The purpose of the seminar was to participate in the ongoing global campaign aimed at encouraging States to ratify and implement the amendments to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) on the crime of aggression, adopted at the Review Conference of Kampala (Uganda) in 2010.

Cooperation with the International Law Commission (ILC) and the Sixth Committee of the United Nations General Assembly

Pursuant to its terms of reference, the CAHDI is instructed to “deepen exchanges of views on the work of the International Law Commission and of the Sixth Committee”.

In this regard, the year 2013 allowed strengthening the links that the CAHDI had established with the ILC and that were already close. Indeed, in addition to the annual exchange of views between the ILC, the Chair of the CAHDI and the Secretary to the CAHDI (Geneva, 10 July 2013), the CAHDI welcomed at its 46^th meeting M. Pavel Šturma, member of the ILC, who recalled the role of the ILC regarding the progressive development and the codification of public international law and presented to the Committee the recent work of the ILC and of the Sixth Committee of the General Assembly of the United Nations (Legal).

Furthermore, the collaboration with the United Nations was strengthened by the presence of the CAHDI Secretariat during the debates of the Sixth Committee of the General Assembly of the United Nations (Legal).

Website and databases of the CAHDI

Pursuant to its terms of reference, the CAHDI is instructed to “continue to update and improve databases managed by the Committee which are related to States practice on immunities of States; organisation and functions of the Office of the Legal Adviser of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and implementation of United Nations sanctions”.

These databases are very effective and useful tools for the public international law practitioners in the sense they allow the practitioners to acquaint themselves with the national practices on these themes which constantly evolve.

The year 2013 was marked by an increase in the number of contributions to these databases. This positive result appreciated by all the members of the CAHDI arises from the modernisation of the working methods of the Public International Law Division.

Furthermore, the new CAHDI website was launched in November 2013 following a presentation made in the framework of the Sixth Committee of the General Assembly of the United Nations in New York. The new website offers a better dissemination of the information collected by the CAHDI as this information is now accessible by themes and activities. Further developments will enhance the interactivity of the website by allowing experts to directly upload their contributions to the databases and enabling the Secretariat to manage them online.

Exchange of views between the Chair of the CAHDI and the Ministers’ Deputies

As it is the custom, the Chair of the CAHDI held an exchange of views with the Ministers’ Deputies of the Council of Europe on 29 May 2013. On this occasion, the Chair presented the ongoing work of the CAHDI, notably the adopted opinions, the cooperation with other international entities, the ongoing work on reservations and declarations to international treaties as well as the development of the CAHDI databases.