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Agreement between the General Secretariat of The OAS and The Inter-American Court of Human Rights concerning the Administrative Functioning of the Secretariat of the Court, reprinted in 1998 Annual Report of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights [49], OEA/Ser.L/V/III.43, doc. 11 (1999).


 

 

 

 

  The Secretary General of the Organization of American States, on behalf of and acting for the General Secretariat of the OAS (hereinafter "SG/OAS"), and the President of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (hereinafter "the Court"), on behalf of and acting for the Court; (hereinafter "the Parties"),

CONSIDERING:

  That Article 27, paragraph 2, of the Statute of the Court provides inter alia that the relations of the Court with the OAS and its organs shall be governed through special agreements.

AGREE:

Article I

Purpose

  The purpose of the present Agreement is to regulate the administrative functioning of the Secretariat of the Court in regard to its relations with SG/OAS.

Article II

Administration of the Budget of the Court

1.  In accordance with Article 26, paragraph 2, of the Statute of the Court, the Court shall administer its own budget. Pursuant to this provision, SG/OAS, with due regard to the timely payment of the assessments of the Regular Fund, shall deposit each quarter in the bank account and on the dates agreed on by the Secretary of the Court and the Director of the Department of Financial Services of SG/OAS through an exchange annually in the budget of the Court for its activities.

2.  The Court shall entrust a firm of external auditors of high repute to effect the annual examination of its records and financial transactions, which shall also be available for inspection by the internal auditors of SG/OAS when it so deems appropriate. The annual financial reports and the qualified opinion of the external auditors shall be submitted to the Board of External Auditors of the OAS during the first quarter of the year following the annual closure of accounts.

Article III

Staff of the Court

1.  The Secretary of the Court shall select and hire the professional and general services staff of the Court, in accordance with the rules and regulations approved by the Court for the standards of SG/OAS, in all respects not incompatible with the independence of the Court. The staff of the Court shall be appointed by the Secretary General of the OAS.

2.  The officials of the Court who on the date of this Agreement have the status members of SG/OAS, including the Secretary of the Court, shall cease to have that status from the time of the signing of this Agreement and shall become exclusively officials the same rights and benefits which, as staff hired on short-term contracts, or contractual staff in a post of confidence as the case may be, they enjoyed under the terms of employment at the General Secretariat on the date of this Agreement. The pertinent rights and benefits shall be set forth in an offer of employment to be submitted to each of them by the Court.

Article IV

Extension of the Jurisdiction of the Administrative Tribunal of the OAS

  The Administrative Tribunal of the OAS shall have competence, pursuant to the applicable provisions of its Statute and its Rules of Procedure, to hear appeals in which members of the Court’s international professional staff claim that the conditions established in their respective letters of appointment or contracts have not been met, or that [there has been a breach of] the legal system applicable to the international professional staff of the Secretariat of the Court, including those relating to the OAS Retirement and Pension Plan, in the form of and according to the additional provisions to which the Parties specially agree in Annex I of the present Agreement, which is an integral part of the Agreement. The Tribunal shall not have competence to hear claims made by general services or local professional staff working at the Court.

Article V

Participation in the Retirement and Pension Plan and in the OAS Provident Fund

  The professional staff members of international category of the Court who already participate in the OAS Retirement and Pension Plan shall continue to do so and new members hired shall participate either in the OAS Retirement and Pension Plan or in the Provident Fund, as the case may be, and in the form stipulated in the Agreement signed between the Court and the Retirement and Pension Committee, a copy of which is attached as Annex II to the present Agreement for purposes of reference.

Article VI

Medical and Life Insurance

  The professional staff members of international category of the Court may participate in the SG/OAS medical and life insurance plans on the same terms as staff members of SG/OAS, on condition that the participants and the Court fulfill the requirements established in the respective insurance plans.

Article VII

Official Travel Document

  Staff members of the Court shall have the right to use the official travel document of the OAS for travel on official mission being understood that its recognition and validity its subject to the national laws and regulations of each of the member States of the OAS.

Article VIII

Civil responsibility for administrative proceedings

1.  SG/OAS shall have no civil responsibility for any action or omission on the part of the Court, its judges, its Secretary or any of its staff members with regard to the management of the funds of the Court and any aspect of labor relations or social security relating to the staff of the Court.

2.  The Court undertakes to compensate SG/OAS for any damage or harm occasioned to it as a result of any administrative or judicial action instituted by a member of the staff of the Court against SG/OAS, its staff and the OAS concerning his or her conditions of employment.

Article IX

Final Provisions

1.  The present Agreement shall enter into force on the date of its signing and may be fully or partially amended at any time by joint agreement of the Parties, by a detailed written from one of them to the other.

2.  Any of the Parties may terminate this Agreement through written notification to the other no less than sixty days in advance.

Article X

Transitory Provision

1.  The entry into force of this Agreement shall revoke the authorization granted by the Director of the Department of Financial Services to officials of the Secretariat of the Court to make disbursements from the bank accounts of the General Secretariat for the execution of its activities.

2.  Any property of SG/OAS in the possession of the Court on the date of signing of the present Agreement shall become the property of the Court as of that date.

  IN FAITH WHEREOF, the Parties, duly authorized to do so, sign the present Agreement in duplicate in the cities and on the dates indicated below their signatures.

For the Inter-American Court For the General Secretariat

  of Human Rights of the OAS

 

Hernán Salgado-Pesantes César Gaviria

   President Secretary General

San José, Costa Rica Washington, D. C.

  Date: 1/1/98 Date: 1/1/98

 

 

 



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