Elizabeth Samson
Middle East Forum, Oct. 11, 2024
“The motivation for the Secretary-General’s refusal to waive immunity is likely a desire to protect the U.N. from the exposure of a court investigation. The organization cannot plead ignorance.”
The United Nations has refused to waive immunity from prosecution for its subsidiary, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), after victims of Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack brought suit in the Southern District of New York under the Alien Tort Claims Act. The Act, dating to 1789 but codified in 1948, gives federal district courts the authority to hear civil lawsuits filed by foreign nationals for torts that violate international law or a U.S. treaty.
While families of victims seek avenues of justice against the perpetrators of the massacre, the U.S. Department of Justice had to concede that it cannot force the U.N. to require its officials to be defendants in U.S. courts, saying, “In light of the United Nations’ immunity, the Court lacks subject matter jurisdiction over the United Nations.”
Much as diplomats receive automatic immunity under Article 31 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, so, too, do workers from international organizations like the U.N., International Monetary Fund, and World Trade Organization, among others. While the U.N. Secretary-General need not waive immunity for his employees or agencies, the integrity of the organization requires it.
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