The United Nations Maintains Absolute Immunity
The United Nations' absolute immunity under United States law was reaffirmed in an opinion decided on March 2, 2010. The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed the lower court's ruling to dismiss the case Brzak et al. v. United Nations et al., docket no. 08-2799.
The original complaint cited an incident in 2003 wherein Cynthia Brzak claimed she was improperly touched by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees during the course of a staff meeting in Geneva. Brzak, acting upon the advice of her co-plaintiff Nasr Ishak, filed a complaint with the United Nations' Office of Internal Oversight Services, OIOS. The offending High Commissioner was eventually exonerated by the Secretary-General of the United Nations. Thereafter, both Brzak and Ishak claim that their superiors retaliated against them.
Brzak and Ishak sued the UN and the individuals involved in the incident in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. The case was dismissed on the grounds that the UN has absolute immunity under United States law.
The court of appeals agreed with the district court that the United Nations had absolute immunity. The plaintiffs-appellants had argued that the Convention on Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations, CPIUN, the treaty that gives the UN absolute immunity, was not self-executing; therefore, since there had not been legislation pertaining to the treaty after its ratification, the US did not need to recognize UN immunity in domestic litigation. Furthermore, they argued that even if the CPIUN had been self-executing because the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, FSIA, was passed after its ratification. FSIA, they argued, strips foreign sovereigns of their immunity in certain circumstances.
First, the court of appeals stated that whatever immunities are possessed by other international organizations, the CPIUN unequivocally grants the United Nations absolute immunity without exception. Second, they noted that the appellants had made no claims that the UN had violated any exceptions to the immunity under FSIA.
The court of appeals finished by stating: legislatively and judicially crafted immunities of one sort or another have existed since well before the framing of the Constitution, have been extended and modified over time, and are firmly embedded in American law. -- Laura P. Valle, Legal Assistant Berliner, Corcoran & Rowe, LLP, Washington, D.C.
Thu, / Embassy Law Link