If the IMF managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn, decides to seek diplomatic immunity to avoid sexual assault charges, is likely to face a winding road where they collide the laws and international treaties, the policies of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the recent U.S. court decisions.
Under the IMF and its Charter, employees of a limited benefit of diplomatic immunity known as "immunity of the facts." This immunity is related to the activities undertaken in the course of their work for the Fund. Article IX of the agreement states that the staff of the Fund "shall enjoy immunity from jurisdiction in respect of official acts performed by them." But even then, the agreement states that the Fund may elect to waive immunity.
For this reason, it is unlikely that the limited immunity protects IMF Strauss-Kahn in a sexual assault case. "The 'facts immunity" only covers the actions taken in the exercise of their functions. The exit a bathroom completely naked and assaulting a waitress probably not meet the requirements,' says Kurt Taylor Gaubatz, associate professor at Graduate Program in International Studies from Old Dominion University and an expert on international law.
The federal law itself in the United States may also complicate the possibility that Strauss-Kahn claimed diplomatic immunity. The Law of International Organizations Immunities applies in a limited scope of the exemption from prosecution similar to the standards of the IMF. The text states that "representatives of foreign governments or international organizations" and "employees of the organizations" are immune to lawsuits and legal proceedings "in relation to acts performed by them to submit an official character." On Sunday, the spokesman of the Police Department of New York, Paul Browne, said Strauss-Kahn did not enjoy diplomatic immunity.
However, Browne did not elaborate on the reasons put forward by the New York police to believe that diplomatic immunity is not applicable in this case. A spokeswoman for the French Consulate in New York, Marie-Laure Charrier, moved the questions on the possible diplomatic immunity to the IMF, which has not yet addressed the issue publicly.
However, despite the limited immunity provided by the statutes of the IMF, Strauss-Kahn could try to exploit their quasi-diplomatic status in its legal defense. One of his attorneys is William Taylor, a partner at the law firm Zuckerman Spaeder in Washington. Taylor has represented a wide range of high profile clients, including the former head of White House staff, Mack McLarty, in civil and criminal actions.
The 'Wall Street Journal reported in October 2008 that Taylor also represented Strauss-Kahn after the controversy that arose after having had an affair with one of his subordinates in the Fund. A possible strategy for the legal defense of Strauss-Kahn could focus on the Vienna Conventions on Diplomatic Relations, which provide a broad legal immunity to diplomats in foreign jurisdictions.
Article 31 of the Convention states that "a diplomatic agent shall enjoy immunity from criminal jurisdiction of the receiving state." The United States ratified the treaty in 1972. The treaty also makes having diplomatic immunity from prosecution in civil and administrative, with some exceptions.
Under the agreement, diplomats are not immune to the "actions relating to any professional or commercial activity exercised by the diplomatic agent in the receiving State outside his official duties." The doubts have arisen in recent years in some civil cases in the United States. Three domestic workers employed by foreign diplomats in the United States has filed federal lawsuits alleging they were victims of degrading treatment and physical and verbal abuse.
The workers said their employers diplomats violated the Fair Labor Standards, and are not exempt from criminal liability under the exception of the Vienna Conventions for "(...) business outside their official duties." Recent precedents in his favor But federal judges have rejected all cases.
Recently, on 26 April, a judge in Washington, James Boasberg dismissed the case in accusing the Lebanese Ambassador Antoine Chedid and his wife, mistreatment and agreed not to pay her maid. His decision was based, in part, in a separate case tried by the State Department, which decided that the recruitment of domestic workers in the diplomatic service is covered by the immunity provisions of the Vienna Convention.
March 25, four former employees of a senior diplomat of Qatar in the United States reported a case similar abuse, which is also based on sexual aggression in federal district court in Washington. This case may set a precedent for the legal defense of Strauss-Kahn. In June 2010, the British newspaper Telegraph reported the initiation of an investigation in Pakistan about the allegations against Paul Ross, head of the IMF's unit of Pakistan.
He was accused of abusing his wife. But the complaint was a short tour. "The police officer handling the case, said that as soon as they heard that Mr Ross had been in Pakistan as a diplomat, left the case," the 'Daily Telegraph'. At that time, the IMF said it was conducting an internal investigation. 
Under the IMF and its Charter, employees of a limited benefit of diplomatic immunity known as "immunity of the facts." This immunity is related to the activities undertaken in the course of their work for the Fund. Article IX of the agreement states that the staff of the Fund "shall enjoy immunity from jurisdiction in respect of official acts performed by them." But even then, the agreement states that the Fund may elect to waive immunity.
For this reason, it is unlikely that the limited immunity protects IMF Strauss-Kahn in a sexual assault case. "The 'facts immunity" only covers the actions taken in the exercise of their functions. The exit a bathroom completely naked and assaulting a waitress probably not meet the requirements,' says Kurt Taylor Gaubatz, associate professor at Graduate Program in International Studies from Old Dominion University and an expert on international law.
The federal law itself in the United States may also complicate the possibility that Strauss-Kahn claimed diplomatic immunity. The Law of International Organizations Immunities applies in a limited scope of the exemption from prosecution similar to the standards of the IMF. The text states that "representatives of foreign governments or international organizations" and "employees of the organizations" are immune to lawsuits and legal proceedings "in relation to acts performed by them to submit an official character." On Sunday, the spokesman of the Police Department of New York, Paul Browne, said Strauss-Kahn did not enjoy diplomatic immunity.
However, Browne did not elaborate on the reasons put forward by the New York police to believe that diplomatic immunity is not applicable in this case. A spokeswoman for the French Consulate in New York, Marie-Laure Charrier, moved the questions on the possible diplomatic immunity to the IMF, which has not yet addressed the issue publicly.
However, despite the limited immunity provided by the statutes of the IMF, Strauss-Kahn could try to exploit their quasi-diplomatic status in its legal defense. One of his attorneys is William Taylor, a partner at the law firm Zuckerman Spaeder in Washington. Taylor has represented a wide range of high profile clients, including the former head of White House staff, Mack McLarty, in civil and criminal actions.
The 'Wall Street Journal reported in October 2008 that Taylor also represented Strauss-Kahn after the controversy that arose after having had an affair with one of his subordinates in the Fund. A possible strategy for the legal defense of Strauss-Kahn could focus on the Vienna Conventions on Diplomatic Relations, which provide a broad legal immunity to diplomats in foreign jurisdictions.
Article 31 of the Convention states that "a diplomatic agent shall enjoy immunity from criminal jurisdiction of the receiving state." The United States ratified the treaty in 1972. The treaty also makes having diplomatic immunity from prosecution in civil and administrative, with some exceptions.
Under the agreement, diplomats are not immune to the "actions relating to any professional or commercial activity exercised by the diplomatic agent in the receiving State outside his official duties." The doubts have arisen in recent years in some civil cases in the United States. Three domestic workers employed by foreign diplomats in the United States has filed federal lawsuits alleging they were victims of degrading treatment and physical and verbal abuse.
The workers said their employers diplomats violated the Fair Labor Standards, and are not exempt from criminal liability under the exception of the Vienna Conventions for "(...) business outside their official duties." Recent precedents in his favor But federal judges have rejected all cases.
Recently, on 26 April, a judge in Washington, James Boasberg dismissed the case in accusing the Lebanese Ambassador Antoine Chedid and his wife, mistreatment and agreed not to pay her maid. His decision was based, in part, in a separate case tried by the State Department, which decided that the recruitment of domestic workers in the diplomatic service is covered by the immunity provisions of the Vienna Convention.
March 25, four former employees of a senior diplomat of Qatar in the United States reported a case similar abuse, which is also based on sexual aggression in federal district court in Washington. This case may set a precedent for the legal defense of Strauss-Kahn. In June 2010, the British newspaper Telegraph reported the initiation of an investigation in Pakistan about the allegations against Paul Ross, head of the IMF's unit of Pakistan.
He was accused of abusing his wife. But the complaint was a short tour. "The police officer handling the case, said that as soon as they heard that Mr Ross had been in Pakistan as a diplomat, left the case," the 'Daily Telegraph'. At that time, the IMF said it was conducting an internal investigation.
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