A reservation is a unilateral statement, however phrased or named, made by a contracting party when signing, ratifying, accepting, approving or acceding to a treaty, whereby it purports to exclude or to modify the legal effect of certain provisions in the treaty in their application to that 'party'. Reservations are in general permitted, unless they are prohibited by the treaty, or incompatible with the object and purpose of the treaty. (Source: Vienna Convention of the Law of Treaties, 1969, Art 2 para 1 (d); Art 19)