U.S. Abandons Optional Protocol to the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations

The Bush admin­is­tra­tion has pulled out of the Optional Protocol to the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, an inter­na­tion­al agree­ment that has been in place for more than 30 years and that the United States ini­tial­ly sup­port­ed to pro­tect its cit­i­zens abroad. In recent years, the pro­vi­sion has been suc­cess­ful­ly invoked by for­eign nations whose cit­i­zens were sen­tenced to death by U.S. states with­out receiv­ing access to diplo­mats from their home coun­tries, events which served as the basis for President Bush’s deci­sion to with­draw from the agree­ment.

The Optional Protocol to the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations requires sig­na­to­ries to let the United Nation’s high­est tri­bunal, the International Court of Justice at the Hague, make the final deci­sion when their cit­i­zens say they have been ille­gal­ly denied the right to seek con­sulate assis­tance when jailed abroad. The admin­is­tra­tion’s with­draw­al from the Optional Protocol comes just weeks before the U.S. Supreme Court is sched­uled to con­sid­er what effect U.S. courts should give to an International Court of Justice rul­ing in favor of 51 Mexican for­eign nation­als. The World Court found that the U.S. gov­ern­ment had failed to com­ply with the require­ments of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, and it direct­ed that U.S. courts give the death row inmates ​“mean­ing­ful review” of their con­vic­tions and sen­tences, with­out apply­ing pro­ce­dur­al default rules to pre­vent con­sid­er­a­tion of the defen­dants’ claims. It is unclear what affect the admin­is­tra­tion’s deci­sion to aban­don the Optional Protocol will have on this case.

Some ana­lysts say President Bush’s deci­sion will weak­en both pro­tec­tions for U.S. cit­i­zens abroad and the idea of rec­i­p­ro­cal oblig­a­tion that the pro­to­col embod­ied. The United States was the first to invoke the Optional Protocol before the World Court to suc­cess­ful­ly sue Iran for the tak­ing of 52 U.S. hostages in 1979. 

(Washington Post, March 10, 2005).

See International Death Penalty, Foreign Nationals, and Supreme Court.