Exemption from Personal Services

Subject(s):

Diplomatic immunity — Diplomatic missions — Diplomatic relations — Military matters

This chapter examines Article 35 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations which concerns the exemption of diplomatic agents from personal services. The Article states that the receiving State shall exempt diplomatic agents from all personal services, from all public services of any kind whatsoever, and from military obligations such as those connected with requisitioning, military contributions and billeting. This exemption comes from the general international practice that any diplomat must be treated as exempt from the obligations imposed on the general public. The chapter describes how this principle of exemption is rarely discussed as because diplomats as foreign nationals would in any event not usually be subject to civic obligations and in the rare cases where they were liable, the diplomats would be protected by their inviolability.