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Consular Notification
The State Department site continues to provide detailed information on consular notification in the United States of foreign consuls under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations and Optional Protocols, U.N.T.S. Nos. 8638-8640, vol. 596, p. 262-512, dated April 24, 1963, but nothing on the retraction of its accession to the optional protocol.
The key issue today is whether the United States would continue to apply the contested notification rules in the event of arrests of foreign nationals in the United States. At Voice of America, David Gollust reports in Bush Administration Defends Decision to Withdraw from International Legal Protocol, on March11, 2005, that the United States believes that its application of the protocol in the case of US citizens held by Iran was proper while foreign insistence on its application in the United States amounts to improper interference. After all, the American legal system is a good one, many Americans believe. There appears to exist some concern over misuse of the optional protocol by foreign nations, or the International Court of Justice in cases such as Avena and Other Mexican Nationals, because of their opposition to the death penalty, statements by Secretary of State Rice and a departmental spokesman, Adam Ereli, seem to indicate.
Is the view expressed by Amnesty International accurate? USA: another "double standard" on consular rights?, says its press release. The true impact will likely depend on the wording of the note from the State Department. Rice had indicated that the consular notification process will continue. And the United States will want consular notification in the event of arrests by Americans abroad.
- by Clemens Kochinke, Berliner, Corcoran & Rowe, LLP, Washington, DC.
Sun, / / Embassy Law Link
