Art. 22 extends the privileges and immunities granted by Art. 21 to parties and their representatives as well as to witnesses and experts.

The essence of what eventually became Art. 22 was contained in all drafts leading to the Convention (History, Vol. I, pp. 98, 100). The provision was explained as being designed to ensure the proper functioning of proceedings (History, Vol. II, pp. 146/7). The term “representatives of parties”, contained in the earlier drafts, was deleted as superfluous in view of the references to “parties” and “agents” (at pp. 389/90, 392/3, 742, 748, 755). Parties were not included in the First Draft but after careful consideration they were reinstated in the list “there by offering them a measure of protection if they had to appear in a country in which the atmosphere was unfriendly” (at p. 971). Immunities for witnesses and experts were not uncontested but were retained in all drafts (at pp. 490/1, 563).

A general reference to “immunities and facilities … as may be necessary for the independent exercise of their functions” in the First Draft was replaced by the more precise reference to Art. 21 (at pp. 659, 666). A suggestion to grant communication privileges to parties, agents, counsel, advocates, witnesses and experts in analogy to Art. 23(2) was not successful (at p. 972).