If you have watched Law & Order or Lethal Weapon 2 at some point in your
life, then you probably know what diplomatic immunity is, or at least
understand the basic concept. But what is it really, and how far will it
stretch over and protect those that have it assigned to them? Is it just
something to walk around and gloat with, or is it actually helpful?
Diplomatic immunity is “immunity from the criminal
jurisdiction of the receiving State enjoyed by the members of the diplomatic
staff, and of the administrative and technical staff and of the service staff
of the mission.” In simpler terms, it is the privilege of exemption from
certain laws and taxes granted to diplomats by the country in which they are
working. This idea was officially agreed upon in 1961 as part of the Vienna
Convention on Diplomatic Relations. Today, there are 187 countries that allow
and provide diplomatic immunity.
The difficulty with diplomatic immunity is that it puts
nations in a bind when the “Diplomatic Immunity Card” is played. The privilege
was initially granted, in essence, to provide strong relationships between
countries. So what would you do if you were the head of a government and
someone from another country’s government, who operated his job within your
country’s borders, was accused of a petty crime and decided to say that he was
exempt from committing that crime due to his diplomatic immunity? Would you
have him convicted of the crime because your policy is that everyone needs to
understand the law, or will you let it slide because your true desire is to
have a more peaceful and less strenuous partnership with the diplomat’s
country? Odds are that you would take international harmony, trust, and
partnership over international discourse, which is what the previously used
situation really boils down to.
To really put this into perspective, here are some actual
uses of diplomatic immunity and their results. (1) Zaire officials were sued by
their landlord for neglecting to pay the rent, which compiled to a debt of
$400,000. This is when the U.S. State Department stepped in, saying that the
Zaireans were protected from paying by diplomatic immunity. The case ended when
a circuit court agreed with the diplomatic immunity statement. (2) In 1996,
United Nations diplomats in New York managed to rack up 143,508 parking
violations, which comes to a hefty amount of $15.8 million dollars in fines. Of
those 140,000+ summons, diplomatic immunity cleared each and every one of them.
(3) Here is an example of exercised diplomatic immunity outside of the United
States. In 1979, the Burmese Ambassador to Sri Lanka used his “Diplomatic
Immunity Card” to weasel his way out of murder. One night, the Burmese Ambassador
waited at home for his wife to return. Reportedly, she was having an affair
with a member of a Sri Lanka band. Upon her arrival, he shot her. The next
morning, he set up a funeral pyre in the backyard on their property in Sri
Lanka. In front of neighbors and police officers, the Ambassador threw his wife
into the flames. When the police came to arrest him, he said that they could
not enter because his house was on Burmese soil. The Burmese government
responded by taking him out of Sri Lanka, and he was never charged.
So diplomatic immunity has been used as an excuse for
murder, tax evasion, rent negligence, parking wherever you feel like parking,
drug trafficking, sex trafficking, and slavery. Personally, I understand why we
have diplomatic immunity. It helps establish soundness within the relations of
governments. However, I also do not believe that your importance to your
government should affect how you are treated within another country’s borders
when it comes to crime. It does not matter whether you are the President of a
European country, the son of a Middle Eastern diplomat, a desperate parent in
an impoverished town, or a serial killer. None of these situations can give you
the right to escape the law. I understand that there is no pure justice within
the legal system, but I do believe that eliminating diplomatic immunity can be
a start.
If you commit the crime, you should be held accountable.
Here is a video providing examples of diplomatic immunity being used:
Here are the links to the sources used for this post:
- http://mentalfloss.com/article/24534/8-shameless-abuses-diplomatic-immunity
- http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/02/15/can_you_get_away_with_any_crime_if_you_have_diplomatic_immunity
- http://www.rd.com/advice/diplomatic-immunity-going-too-far/
- http://www.theguardian.com/world/blog/2012/mar/28/dominique-strauss-kahn-diplomatic-immunity-scandal
- https://www.legalzoom.com/articles/diplomatic-immunity-how-does-it-work
