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An officer performing consular functions in an honorary capacity. Such an officer is normally a citizen of or permanently resident in the receiving state, and is not a member of the sending state\'s diplomatic service. However, some substantial connection with that state is usual. An honorary consular officer may, and generally does, head a consular post, and that post may be at any consular level. Thus these officers are encountered as honorary consuls-general, honorary consuls, honorary vice-consuls, or as honorary consular agents, but most commonly as one of the middle two of these four ranks.
Where a state has an honorary consular officer in a capital city in which it has no other residential representation (because no diplomatic mission has been accredited to the state in question or because all the members of its mission are non-resident), the receiving state may, as a convenience, include any such officers in an annex to its diplomatic list. This is Britain\'s practice. It reflects the fact that consular facilities in capital cities now appear almost invariably to be provided through the consular sections of embassies rather than through separate consulates. Accordingly, consular lists in respect of capital cities – in which such honorary consular officers would normally be included – seem to be a rarity, or even extinct. In the case of those few Commonwealth states which do not exchange ‘consuls’, an honorary officer performing consular functions is usually called an honorary representative (sense 2). A state may decline to receive honorary consular officers. In the past, honorary consular officers have sometimes been known as ‘trading consuls’. See also consular privileges and immunities; proxenos. |
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