OPTIONAL PROTOCOL TO THE CONVENTION ON THE SAFETY OF UNITED NATIONS AND ASSOCIATED PERSONNEL The States Parties to this Protocol Recalling the terms ofthe Convention on the Safety of United Nations and Associated Personnel done at New York on 9 December 1994 Deeply concerned over the continuing pattern of attacks against United Nations and associated personnel Recognizing that United Nations operations conducted fer the purposes of delivering humanitarian political or development assistance in peacebuilding and of delivering emergency humanitarian assistance which entail particular risks for United Nations and associated personnel require the extension of the scope of legal protection under the Convention to such personnel Convinced of the need to have in place an effective regime to ensure that the perpetrators of attacks against United Nations and associated personnel engaged in United Nations operations are brought to justice Hove agreed as follows ARTICLE I RELATIONSHIP This Protocol supplements the Convention on the Safety of United Nations and Associated Personnel done at New York on 9 December 1994 hereinafter referred to as the Convention and as between the Parties to this Protocol the Convention and the Protocol shall be read and interpreted together as a single instrument ARTICLE 1 APPLICATION OF THE CONVENTION TO UNITED NATIONS OPERATIONS 1 The Parties to this Protocol shall in addition to those operations as de ned in article 1 of the Convention apply the Convention in respect of all other United Nations operations established by a competent organ of the United Nations in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and conducted under United Natioos authority and control for the purposes of 3 Delivering humanitarian political or development assistance in peacebuilding or Delivering emergency humanitarian assistance 2 Paragraph 1 does not apply to any permanent United Nations of ce such as headquarters of the Organization or its specialized agencies established under an agreement with the United Nations 3 A host State may make a declaration to the Secretary General of the United Nations that it shall not apply the provisions of this Protocol with respect to an operation under article which is conducted for the sole purpose of responding to a natural disaster Such a declaration shall be made prior to the deployment of the operation ARTICLE DUTY OF A STATE PARTY WITH RESPECT TO ARTICLE 8 OF THE CONVENTION The duty of a State Party to this Protocol with respect to the application of article 8 of the Convention to United Nations operations de ned in article II of this Protocol shall be without prejudice to its right to take action in the exercise of its national jurisdiction over any United Nations or associated personnel who violates the laws and regulations of that State provided that such action is not in violation of any other international law obligation of the State Party ARTICLE IV SIGNATURE This Protocol shall be open for signature by all States at United Nations Headquarters for twelve months from 16 January 2006 to 16 January 2007 ARTICLE CONSENT TO BE BOUND 1 This Protocol shall be subject to rati cation acceptance or approval by the signatory States Instruments of rati cation acceptance or approval shall be deposited with the Secretary-General of the United Nations 2 This Protocol shall after 16 January 2007 be open for accession by any non-signatory State Instruments of accession shall be deposited with the Secretary-General of the United Nations 3 Any State that is not a State Party to the Convention may ratify accept approve or accede to this Protocol if at the same time it rati es accepts approves or accedes to the Convention in accordance with articles 25 and 26 thereof ARTICLE VI ENTRY INTO FORCE 1 This Protocol shall enter into force thirty days after twenty-two instruments of rati cation acceptance approval or accession have been deposited with the Secretary-General of the United Nations 2 For each State ratifying accepting approving or acceding to this Protocol after the deposit of the twenty-second instrument of rati cation acceptance approval or accession the Protocol shall enter into force on the thirtieth day after the deposit by such State of its instrument of rati cation acceptance approval or accession ARTICLE VII DENUNCIATION 1 A State Party may denounce this Protocol by written notification to the Secretary-General of the United Nations 2 Denunciation shall take effect one year following the date on which noti cation is received by the Secretary General of the United Nations ARTICLE AUTHENTIC TEXTS The original of this Protocol of which the Arabic Chinese English French Russian and Spanish texts are equally authentic shall be deposited with the Secretary-General of the United Nations who shall send certi ed copies thereofto all States Done at New York this eighth day of December two thousand and five