Diplomatic immunity
[1] Diplomatic immunity is one of the oldest and most widespread practices in international relations;[2] most civilizations since antiquity have granted some degree of special status to foreign envoys and messengers.
[1] It is designed to facilitate relations between states by allowing their respective representatives to conduct their duties freely and safely, even during periods of political tension and armed conflict.
[2] As a longstanding and nearly universal concept, diplomatic immunity has long been considered customary law; however, it was traditionally granted on a bilateral, ad hoc basis, leading to varying and sometimes conflicting standards of protection.
A foreign official's home country may waive immunity, typically in the event that they are involved in some manner in a serious crime unrelated to their diplomatic role (as opposed to, for example, allegations of spying).
Gregory of Tours recorded that Frankish envoys sent from King Childebert II to the Byzantine emperor Maurice were killed in Carthage by the prefect of the city, after one of the Franks had murdered a merchant.
[20] In reality, most diplomats are representatives of nations with a tradition of professional civil service; they are expected to obey regulations governing their behaviour and suffer severe disciplinary action if they flout local laws.
In many nations, a professional diplomat's career may be compromised if they (or members of their family) disobey the local authorities or cause serious embarrassment, and such cases are, at any rate, a violation of the spirit of the Vienna Conventions.
[25] In 1987, the Human Resources Administration of New York City placed 9-year-old Terrence Karamba in a foster home after his elementary school teachers noticed suspicious scars and injuries.
He and his 7-year-old sister, who was also placed in city custody, told officials the wounds had been inflicted by their father, Floyd Karamba, an administrative attaché at the Zimbabwean Mission to the UN.
[26] In February 1999 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, Kazuko Shimokoji, wife of the Japanese Consul-General, showed up at the emergency department of a city hospital with two black eyes and a bruised neck.
The row came at a time of tension between Russia and the Netherlands, after the Russian security services captured a Greenpeace vessel sailing under the Dutch flag, Arctic Sunrise, that was protesting against oil drilling in the Prirazlomnoye field.
It is believed that the Jordanians and Israeli security agent quarreled over the ongoing tensions regarding the installations of metal detectors at entry points to al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem.
A 2006 economic study found that there was a significant correlation between home-country corruption (as measured by Transparency International) and unpaid parking fines: six countries had in excess of 100 violations per diplomat: Kuwait, Egypt, Chad, Sudan, Bulgaria and Mozambique.
[69][70] In January 1997, Gueorgui Makharadze, a high-ranking Georgian diplomat, caused a five-car pileup in Washington, D.C., in the United States, which killed a 16-year-old girl.
Under the Vienna Convention, diplomatic immunity does not apply to civil actions relating to vehicular accidents, but in 2006, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that, since he was using his vehicle for consular purposes, Kent could not be sued civilly.
[76] On 3 December 2004, in Bucharest, Romania, Christopher Van Goethem, an American Marine serving his embassy, ran a red traffic signal, collided with a taxi, and killed popular Romanian musician Teo Peter.
[95][96] On 14 February 2013, a vehicle bearing diplomatic plates registered to the US Embassy got into an accident in Islamabad, Pakistan involving two residents out of which one was killed and the other survived.
[97] In July 2013, Joshua Walde, an American diplomat in Nairobi, Kenya, crashed into a mini-bus, killing one man and seriously injuring eight others, who were left with no financial assistance to pay for hospital bills.
[99] Right after the accident, he drove directly into the Lebanese embassy compound and refused to cooperate with the local police investigation, claiming his diplomatic immunity.
[100] On 12 September 2015, Sheikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Thani tried to claim diplomatic immunity when his Ferrari LaFerrari and a Porsche 911 GT3 were caught on camera drag racing through a residential neighborhood in Beverly Hills.
Police said that under normal circumstances the driver would face investigation and possible prosecution on suspicion of negligent manslaughter, but prosecutors said they had no choice but to close the case because he had diplomatic immunity.
[103] On 27 August 2019, Anne Sacoolas, the wife of an American government employee working in the United Kingdom, was a suspect in a traffic incident involving 19-year-old Harry Dunn in Croughton, Northamptonshire, England.
[104] Dunn was riding his motorcycle when it was reported that a woman emerged from RAF Croughton driving on the wrong side of the road, resulting in a head-on collision.
After 999 handlers wrongly categorized the call, there was a 43-minute wait for an ambulance, resulting in a two-hour delay arriving at a trauma center, where Harry Dunn later died.
Local citizens and businesses are often at a disadvantage when filing civil claims against a diplomat, especially in cases of unpaid rent, alimony, and child support.
[54] The issue of abusing diplomatic immunity in family relations, especially alimony and child support, has become so widespread that it prompted discussion at the 1995 UN Fourth World Conference on Women, in Beijing.
Historically, the United Nations has not become involved with family disputes and has refused to garnish the wages of diplomats who owe money for child support, citing sovereign immunity.
Al Sharaf was a Kuwaiti Financial Attaché assigned to handle the finances of Kuwait Health Office in Washington, D.C. She was charged by the government as she had violated 18 U.S.C § 1956 for conspiring to launder money.
Since it was a criminal case, the prosecution presented evidence beyond a reasonable doubt to prove that Al Sharaf had engaged in commercial activity and her actions were different from her official functions as a representative of Kuwait, thereby, as per the VCDR art.
[118] In October 1914, Papen became involved with what was later dubbed "the Hindu–German Conspiracy", by covertly arranging with Indian nationalists based in California for arms trafficking to the latter for a planned uprising against the British Raj.
