Vienna Convention Endorsement

Every year, a significant number of United States citizens traveling or living overseas find themselves ensnared in the criminal justice system of a foreign government. Consular assistance provides a vital service to these Americans, maintaining a desperately needed link to the outside world, and helping them navigate and understand an unfamiliar, and perhaps hostile, legal system. Article 36 of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations ensures that consular officers will be allowed to perform this important service.

FAWCO and its sister organizations AARO and ACA were asked in 2006 to join other “friends of the court” supporting a brief before the U.S. Supreme Court arguing for strict compliance with the Vienna Convention.

We three signed as organizations dedicated to the interests of U.S. citizens abroad, including their right to timely consular information, notification and access under Article 36 of the Vienna Convention. We agreed with the brief’s argument that a failure by the domestic courts to fully extend the protections of the Vienna Convention domestically will ultimately, and inevitably, endanger the welfare of United States citizens abroad.

The delegates to the 2006 Interim Conference were asked for an official endorsement of this position, and unanimously approved the following statement:

Realizing the vital role that consular officials play in defending the interests of their nationals abroad, the delegates to the 2006 FAWCO Interim Conference in Berlin, Germany, urge the United States and all other party States to respect and adhere to the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations including, in particular, Article 36 on the right to consular information, notification and access.