Art. 24 deals with the freedom from taxation. Para. 1 covers the Centre itself. Para. 2 covers persons who are permanently associated with the Centre's work. These are the Chairman, the members of the Administrative Council and officials and employees of the Secretariat. Para. 3 covers conciliators, arbitrators and members of ad hoc committees. Parties, agents, counsel, advocates, witnesses and experts enjoy no exemption from taxation.

The Centre

The text of Art. 24(1) was contained in all drafts to the Convention and under-went almost no change (History, Vol. I, p. 104). It was copied from the parallel provisions of the World Bank's and International Monetary Fund's Articles of Agreement1 (History, Vol. II, pp. 389, 744/5). There was some debate about local taxes or rates which cover actual services (at pp. 390, 666/7, 744). The reference to “operations and transactions” was explained by the fact that the Centre might want to enter into various contracts (pp. 392, 744/5). The exemption from the collection of taxes was explained by the practice of countries to impose the liability for withholding and paying taxes on employers (at pp. 745/6).