Bill Watch 56/2019
International Treaties Bill
30 October 2019
too must agreements by which the government guarantees debts of
parastatals, because if the parastatals default on their obligations the
government will have to pay the creditors in terms of its guarantees.
That is the background against which the International Treaties Bill must be
assessed.
The Contents of the Bill
The Bill is a short one of 12 clauses and its provisions are explained in an
unusually helpful memorandum. What follows is an outline of the Bill’s major
provisions:
Scope of the Bill
According to clause 3, the Bill will not affect double-taxation agreements, bilateral
trade agreements and other treaties which are negotiated and published under
statutes such as the Income Tax Act and the Customs and Excise Act, which
contain adequate provisions for publishing and enforcing the agreements and
treaties.
Archive of treaties
Under clause 4 the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade will be the
custodian and national depositary of all treaties to which Zimbabwe is currently a
party. The treaties will all be available for inspection by interested persons on
payment of a fee prescribed in regulations or fixed by the Minister.
Procedure for Ratification of treaties
Under clauses 5 and 6 international treaties that have been negotiated on behalf
of the government will have to be sent for examination to PAAC, a four-person
committee of civil servants chaired by a representative of the AttorneyGeneral. After examining draft treaties PAAC will recommend whether they
should be renegotiated or altered, or approved by “the President in Cabinet” [i.e.
by the Cabinet presided over by the President]. If PAAC recommends approval,
the treaties will be submitted to the Cabinet and, if Cabinet approves them, they
will be sent to Parliament for approval. Finally, if Parliament approves the treaties
the Ministry that negotiated them will be responsible for sending instruments of
ratification to the other party to the treaty or to the appropriate depositary, as the
case may be.
Although the Bill does not say so, much the same procedure will presumably be
followed when, as sometimes happens, the President himself signs a treaty: the
treaty as signed will be examined by PAAC before being submitted to Parliament
for approval.
Publication of treaties
Under clause 7 of the Bill, PAAC may recommend that a treaty be published in
the Gazette for public information before it has been approved by Parliament; it
is not clear if the President must accede to such a request or if he has a discretion
in the matter. The lack of clarity persists later in the clause where it states that
every international treaty that has been approved by Parliament must be
published in the Gazette, except any treaty that “falls within the scope of the
prerogative powers of the President in the sphere of international relations”. The