7 Immunity, 7.2 Abdi Hosh Askir v Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Joseph E. Connor et al., US District Court SDNY, 29 July 1996, 933 F. Suppl. 368 (SDNY 1996)

Subject(s):

Immunity from jurisdiction — Membership of international organizations — International organizations, practice and procedure — Responsibility of international organizations — Judgments

The present case affirms the immunity from legal process of the United Nations and UN personnel acting in their official capacity in procedures before national courts (regardless of allegations of malfeasance). Although the Court refrains from explicitly pronouncing on the consequences of possible discrepancies between immunities granted under domestic law and international law, it acknowledges that the 1946 General Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations provides immunity from ‘every form of legal process’, the only exception being express waiver by the United Nations itself. In the margin, it sheds light on the scope of the doctrine of ‘restrictive immunity’, by holding that acts that form part and parcel of military and humanitarian peacekeeping operations (including the occupation of property to house troops etc.) involve the exercise of governmental functions rather than private commercial activity and thus benefit from immunity.