7.5 Immunity and Privileges of International Organizations

Functional necessity institutionalized: The UN family: UN Charter Article 105 — the Organization enjoys in each member's territory such privileges and immunities as are necessary for the attainment of its purposes — implemented by the 1946 Convention on Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations (and the 1947 Specialized Agencies Convention): premises, archives, assets inviolable; tax and currency exemption; legal-process immunity; officials' official-act immunity; the Secretary-General and senior officials' full diplomatic grade; experts on mission (the Mazilu line) and peacekeepers' status-of-forces agreements; Headquarters agreements and host-state law's interplay; The specialized agencies; the Bretton Woods institutions' special stature; the WTO's milder regime; the ICJ's and ICC's judges' immunities; The functional logic's limit — the accountability debate: organizations claiming immunity while operating aid and peace programmes (the Haiti cholera litigation against the UN — the absolute-immunity bar and the moral-political settlement); the "immunity vs. remedies" tension — and the peacekeepers' sexual-abuse accountability gap (the standing Nepali concern — contingents' discipline, sending-state responsibility — Units 5 and 12's interface).