Editorial Note
Concerning the general question of the status of the General Convention on Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations, vis-à-vis the United States, and with particular reference to action by the United States Senate in July reserving the position of the United States in respect to section 18(b) of the Convention, relating to tax immunity (see letter, Gross to Kerno, September 11, page 54), Adlai Stevenson, United States Representative on the Fifth Committee of the General Assembly, made the following statement to that Committee on November 4, 1947:
“I want to point out that the Congress of the United States, our legislative body, has not adhered to the convention of privileges and immunities. It has not granted exemption from federal taxation of a United States citizen working for the United Nations. However, this matter has not been concluded by the Congress. It is there now. It has been rejected by the Senate, the upper body, and it is pending in the House. It is not a certainty that the Congress will not grant tax immunity; that the United States will not join those other States who have already granted tax immunity, although there are relatively few among them among the membership of the United Nations.
“I want the members of the Committee to know and understand the best I can the principle—the problem we are confronted with. The Delegation of the United States at the United Nations represents the executive branch of the government, not the legislative branch. We are, therefore, in a measure, restricted in the opinions that we express and in the action which we propose to take, by the principles that are established from time to time by our legislative branch. The attitude of Congress historically in this country as to tax immunity springs from profound roots. It is not capricious; it is not in any sense a result of any lack on their part of willingness to cooperate with the United [Page 68] Nations. It springs from a profound principle in the origins of the government of my country, which was expressed many times historically, that there shall be in this country equal rights for all and special privileges for none, that there shall be no class of citizens who enjoy rights, titles of nobility, etc. It found its root with anchorage in our origins from continental Europe. Translated into modern terms it is difficult for the legislative branch of my government to give tax immunity in accordance with the privileges and immunities which have been proposed here, because it would create a class of people within the United States who enjoy a special privilege.
“… I can assure the Committee that the executive branch of the government will renew, and most emphatically, its recommendations that in this case American employees of the United Nations should be granted tax immunity and that it should adhere to the treaty.1 It is quite possible that that may come about. As I see it, the matter is not foreclosed. It is just one branch of our government that has acted upon the matter during the sessions this winter.” (501.AC/3–148)
For the Fifth Committee’s report on the problem of tax equalization and the text of the resolution approved by the General Assembly on November 20, see United Nations, Official Records of the General Assembly, Second Session, Plenary Meetings, pages 1176 ff. As was done in 1946, those Members that had not yet acceded to the General Convention on Privileges and Immunities were requested “to take the necessary legislative action to do so in order to exempt their nationals employed by the United Nations from national income taxation.…” (Ibid., page 1178).
- Omission indicated in source text.↩