Intergovernmental Organisation for International Carriage by Rail

OTIF deploys tools to facilitate international rail traffic and works closely together to achieve this with the International Rail Transport Committee (CIT), the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), the European Union Agency for Railways (ERA), the European Commission's Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport (DG MOVE), and the Organization for Cooperation of Railways (OSJD).

Prior to the Vilnius Protocol, the principal objective of OTIF was to develop uniform systems of law which could apply to the carriage of passengers and freight in international rail traffic.

These systems of law have been in existence for decades and are known as the Uniform Rules Concerning the Contract of International Carriage of Goods by Rail (CIM) for freight/goods [2] and the Uniform Rules concerning the Contract of International Carriage of Passengers by Rail (CIV) for passengers.

[3] As of 2019, there are 50 Member States and 1 Associate Member of OTIF plus the European Union: Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Austria, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, European Union, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Italy, Jordan, Latvia, Lebanon, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Monaco, Montenegro, Morocco, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Norway, Pakistan, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine and United Kingdom.

[4] The membership of Iraq, Lebanon and Syria have been suspended until international railway traffic with these countries is restored.