International driving permits cover only some countries

- Home Affairs Ministry

Seventeen  International Driving Permits have been issued by the Licence Revenue Office, Guyana Revenue Authority, at July this year but they only cover some countries, the Ministry of Home Affairs said yesterday in a press release.

The ministry said it understands that some persons were disappointed that the countries they wished to visit were not covered by the International Driving Permit, and this is why the number issued to date is less than what was anticipated.

It must be noted, the release stated,  that Guyana is a party to the 1968 Vienna Convention on Road Traffic which provides for the issuance of International Driving Permits.

Article 48 of the 1968 Vienna Convention on Road Traffic provides that upon its entry into force, the Convention shall terminate and replace, in relations between the Contracting Parties the following:

1. 1926 Paris International Convention relative to Motor Traffic;
2. 1926 Paris International Convention relative to Road Traffic;
3. 1943 Washington Con-vention on the Regulation of Inter-American Automotive Traffic; and
4. 1949 Geneva Conven-tion on Road Traffic.

Many of the countries that are not parties to the 1968 Vienna Convention on Road Traffic remain parties to 1949 Geneva Convention on Road Traffic including Barbados, Canada, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, United States of America, United Kingdom, Argentina and  Venezuela, the ministry said.

However, most of the countries of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) are not parties to either the 1949 Geneva Convention or the 1968 Vienna Convention.

Members of the public are advised to contact the Licence Revenue Office for further information in respect of International Driving Permits, the release said.