It was arbitrated by UN Secretary-General Javier Pérez de Cuéllar in 1986, and became significant in the subject of public international law for its implications on state responsibility.
On 10 July 1985, an undercover operation conducted by the French military security service (DGSE) sank the Dutch-registered Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior berthed in Auckland Harbour, killing a Portuguese photographer, Fernando Pereira.
[1][2][3] After a series of diplomatic confrontations between France and New Zealand pertaining primarily to issues of compensation and the treatment of the apprehended agents, both governments decided to have their differences arbitrated by a tribunal chaired by then Secretary-General of the UN, Javier Pérez de Cuéllar.
[citation needed] Nowadays conduct which would qualify as an Internationally Wrongful Act committed by an agent of a State can attributed to it via Art.
[citation needed] France sought to rely on the doctrine of force majeure in that the medical grounds used to repatriate the agents was unforeseen and beyond its control, thus the treaty's obligation for detention would be impossible.