Jurisdictional immunity of international organisations and the rights of their staff – Report

The Report – elaborated by the Rapporteur of the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights of Council of Europe, Ulrik Volker – provides the draft resolution and recommendation on the jurisdictional immunity of international organizations and their rights of their staff.

The report stresses that the motion for a resolution puts emphasis on jurisdictional immunity of organizations, which allows them not to be arraigned before the courts of the host States, highlighting that jurisdictional immunity should not create an area outside the rule of law and that staff members should not be deprived of the right to a fair trial and be able to defend their rights, including in court. The jurisdictional immunity of an international organization should not be allowed to cover abuses of the European Convention on Human Rights or of the European Social Charter .

In addition, the Report provides an analysis of the legal regime of jurisdictional immunities of international organizations and their agents. The report stresses the need of restricting the scope of jurisdictional immunity.

It also reminds the observations of the CAHDI, which concluded that it is essential to strike the right balance between the need to maintain the independence of international organizations and the need to protect victims of any abuse, and notes that several delegations pointed out that it was necessary to adopt a tailor-made approach for each organization and to take account of the differences between jure imperii and jure gestionis acts (as in the case of States).