Un Sofa Status Of Forces Agreement

While NATO`s SOFA offers extensive language for establishing jurisdiction, the United States is open to many SOFAs that appear to have a very fundamental rule for determining jurisdiction. Some agreements contain a single sentence according to which U.S. personnel must obtain a status equivalent to that of administrative and technical staff of the U.S. Embassy in that country. The Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 18 April 1961 establishes classes of personnel with different levels of legal protection.30 Administrative and technical personnel enjoy, inter alia, “immunity from the criminal justice of the host State”. 31 Consequently, a SOFA treating United States personnel as administrative and technical personnel confers immunity from criminal justice during the host country. The security agreement is a legally binding agreement that ends within three years, unless it is denounced earlier by one of the parties. The security agreement contains provisions that deal with a wide range of military issues. As already said, a deadline is set for the withdrawal of all US forces from Iraq until December 31, 2011. The agreement also contains many provisions similar to those regularly contained in the SOFAs concluded by the United States.120 In particular, the agreement contains provisions relating to the right of the parties to assert civil and criminal justice over the United States armed forces, as well as provisions setting out rules and procedures applicable to the United States armed forces with respect to the carrying of weapons, the wearing of uniforms applies. Entry and exit in Iraq, taxes, customs duties and debts. The United States is a party to the Inter-American Treaty of Mutual Assistance (Rio Treaty) 139, for which the United States Senate recommended its ratification on December 8, 1947.

The United States then concluded military aid agreements with Guatemala, 140 Haiti, 141, and Honduras.142 The agreements cite commitments established under the Rio Treaty and concern the status of U.S. personnel in each of the countries. The United States extended the status protection contained in the military aid agreements by subsequently concluding with each of the SOFA countries. The three military assistance agreements were cited as the basis for the new agreement. In 1968, two years after the sofa was signed between the countries, one of the United States became a member.