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 2014, 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 47^th meeting (Strasbourg, 20-21 March 2014) and its 48^th meeting (The Hague, Netherlands, 18-19 September 2014).

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

At the request of the Committee of Ministers, the CAHDI adopted at its 47^th meeting its opinion on Recommendation 2037 (2014) of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe – “Accountability of international organisations for human rights violations”. The Committee of Ministers took this opinion into account when adopting its reply to the said recommendation.

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 in September 2013 for the follow-up of the conventions for which it had been given responsibility.

In pursuance of this work plan, the CAHDI examined the following conventions in 2014:

• 47^th meeting: the European Convention for the Peaceful Settlement of Disputes (ETS No. 23);
• 48^th meeting: the European Convention on Consular Functions (ETS No. 61);
• 48^th meeting: the European Convention on the Abolition of Legalisation of Documents executed by Diplomatic Agents or Consular Officers (ETS No. 63).

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.

Furthermore, a new document had been included on the agenda of the CAHDI in 2014, namely a document presenting the reactions of member and observer States of the CAHDI to outstanding reservations and declarations examined by the Committee and for which the deadline for objection has expired. This document gives a global and exhaustive overview of the reactions of States to reservations and declarations examined by the CAHDI and hence illustrates the CAHDI’s important place in the reservations dialogue.

Immunities of States and international organisations

In 2014, 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 “Settlement of disputes of a private character to which an international organisation is a party”. This subject aims at facilitating a discussion on the topical questions related to the settlement of third-party claims for personal injury or death and property loss or damage allegedly caused by an international organisation and the effective remedies available for claimants in these situations. A questionnaire had been elaborated on this topic and counts to date around fifteen replies.

Regarding the issue of “Immunity of State owned cultural property on loan” placed on the agenda in 2013, the 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 had been published on the website of the CAHDI. It counts to date around fifteen signatures. The Secretariat of the CAHDI performs the functions of “depository” of this Declaration and the text of the Declaration is available in English and French on the website of the CAHDI.

The CAHDI furthermore continued its exchanges on the issues of “Service of process” and of “Immunities of special missions”.

Organisation and functions of the Office of the Legal Adviser of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

In conformity with the Council of Europe Gender Equality Strategy for 2014-2017, the CAHDI decided in 2014 to revise its questionnaire on the organisation and functions of the Office of the Legal Adviser of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This questionnaire now contains additional questions on gender equality and counts to date around thirty replies. These replies appear in the CAHDI database on the “Organisation and functions of the Office of the Legal Adviser of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs”.

National implementation measures of UN sanctions and respect for human rights

The CAHDI database on “Implementation of UN sanctions and respect for Human Rights” counts to date around forty replies from member and non-member States of the Council of Europe and from an international organisation (European Union).

This database was highly appreciated and contributed in 2014 to the Initiative entitled “High Level Review of United Nations Sanctions”. In this respect, the CAHDI Secretariat participated and contributed to the preparation of the outcome final report on United Nations sanctions which has been submitted for consideration to the UN Security Council sanctions committees.

Cooperation with other international entities

In 2014, the CAHDI pursued its exchanges of views with other international entities.

At its 47^th meeting, the members of the CAHDI held an exchange of views with Ms Fatou Bensouda, Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC). The exchanges focused notably on the recent activities of the Office of the Prosecutor, the challenges it faced as well as the question of the cooperation and coordination between the ICC and the States Parties to the Rome Statute of the ICC.

Furthermore, the Secretariat of the CAHDI participated in the Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute of the ICC which was held in December 2014.

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 2014 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, 16 July 2014), the CAHDI welcomed at its 48^th meeting Ms Marie Jacobsson, member of the ILC, who reviewed the different topics of work of the ILC as well as their respective progress.

Furthermore, the Public International Law Division and Treaty Office organised in the margins of the 47^th meeting of the CAHDI a seminar on the "Immunity ratione materiae of State officials from foreign criminal jurisdiction". This seminar was opened by Ms Concepción Escobar Hernández, Special Rapporteur of the ILC on this issue. The invited speakers then presented their topic:

• Mr Roger O’Keefe, Professor (University of Cambridge, United Kingdom) on “Immunity ratione materiae from foreign criminal jurisdiction and the concept of “acts performed in an official capacity””;
• Ms Paola Gaeta, Professor (Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights, Switzerland) on “Are there exceptions to international immunity ratione materiae before foreign criminal jurisdictions?”;
• Sir Michael Wood, member of the ILC, on “The work of the ILC: Questions of methodology and approach”.

Finally, 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).

Topical questions of international law

Pursuant to its terms of reference, the CAHDI is instructed to “examine topical questions of public international law”.

At its 47^th meeting, the Committee held an exchange of views on the international law aspects of the recent events in Ukraine.

At its 48^th meeting, it held an exchange of views on the possibility to withdraw citizenship from persons who have departed for foreign countries in order to join groups involved in armed conflicts in these countries, the so-called “foreign terrorist fighters”.

Furthermore, in the framework of the close of the Dutch Chairmanship of the CAHDI, the Public International Law Division and Treaty Office organised jointly with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands a seminar on “The legal aspects of the role of the host State of international organisations” (The Hague, 19 September 2014).

The seminar was opened by Ms Liesbeth Lijnzaad, Legal Adviser of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands and Chair of the CAHDI. The invited speakers then presented their topic:

• Mr Niels Blokker, Professor of International Institutional Law (Leiden University, the Netherlands) on the “Legal aspects of the relationship between international organisations and their host States: from theory to practice”;
• Ms Caroline Kraege, Head of the Diplomatic and Consular Law Section, Directorate of International Law, Federal Department for Foreign Affairs (Switzerland) on “The role of Switzerland as a host State of international organisations”;
• Mr Jörg Polakiewicz, Jurisconsult and Director of Legal Advice and Public International Law (Council of Europe) on “The Council of Europe and its host States: legal and practical aspects”;
• Ms Anne-Sophie Massa, Legal Counsel, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (the Netherlands) on “The Hague: world criminal capital? Or how the international criminal jurisdictions pose new challenges to their host State”.

All the presentations are published on the CAHDI website devoted to this seminar.

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 11 June 2014. On this occasion, the Chair presented the ongoing work of the CAHDI, notably the adopted opinions, the examination of the conventions in the framework of the review of Council of Europe conventions, the debated topical issues of public international law, 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.