To Waive or Not to Waive: Immunity and Accountability in U.N. Peacekeeping Operations
![handle is hein.journals/conjil18 and id is 109 raw text is: TO WAIVE OR NOT TO WAIVE:
IMMUNITY AND ACCOUNTABILITY IN U.N.
PEACEKEEPING OPERATIONS
Frederick Rawski *
To recognize the existence of a general and unrestricted immunity
from suit or prosecution on the part of the personnel of the United Nations,
so long as the individual be performing in his official capacity, even
though the individual's function has no relation to the importance or the
success of the organization's deliberations, is carrying the principle of
immunity completely out of bounds. To establish such a principle would
in effect create a large preferred class within our borders who would be
immune to punishment on identical facts for which the average American
would be subject to punishment. Any such theory does violence to and is
repugnant to the American sense of fairness and justice and flouts the very
basic principle of the United Nations itself, which in its preamble to its
charter affirms that it is created to give substance to the principle that the
rights of all men and women are equal.
Judge Rubin of the City Court of New Rochelle, November 1946.'
[T]he main purpose of granting immunity to international
organizations is to protect them against the unilateral interference by the
individual government of the state in which they are located. The rationale
... does not apply to the circumstances prevailing in Kosovo, where the
interim civilian administration.., acts as a surrogate state .... [T]here is
no need for a government to be protected against itself. . . . [N]o
democratic state operating under the rule of law accords itself total
immunity from any administrative, civil or criminal responsibility. Such a
blanket lack of accountability paves the way for the impunity of the state.
Marek Antoni Nowicki, Ombudsperson in Kosovo, April 2001.2
* Frederick Rawski graduated from the New York University School of Law in May 2002.
From May to December of 2000, he was an international staff member in the Human Rights Unit of the
United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor [UNTAETI. Special thanks to Professors
Thomas Franck and David Malone. Thanks also to Simon Chesternan for comments on an earlier
draft.
1. Westchester County v. Ranoilo, 67 N.Y.S.2d 31, 34 (New Rochelle City Ct. 1946), submitted
to the 6th Committee on November 6, 1949 as U.N. Doc. A/C.6/57 (1946).
2. OMBUDSPERSON INSTITUTION IN Kosovo, SPECIAL REPORT No. 1 ON THE COMPATIBILITY
WITH RECOGNIZED INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS OF UNMIK REGULATION No. 2000/47 ON THE STATUS,](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/conjil18&div=8&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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To Waive or Not to Waive: Immunity and Accountability in U.N. Peacekeeping Operations
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