India demands data on UN staff misconduct and use of immunity

In an attempt to break the wall of silence around the crimes and misconduct by UN staff and those on its assignments India has demanded the secretariat disclose information about such cases and the immunity invoked against prosecutionsYedla Umasankar the legal advisor in Indias UN Mission touched a raw nerve here by criticising the UN on Friday for not vigorously following up allegations of serious wrongdoing by its employees who enjoy the equivalent of diplomatic immunity a prized possession of its staffIt appears that the UN system itself may be reluctant to waive immunity even for serious misconduct carried out by its personnel while serving on its missions so that such cases can be prosecuted by the host governments he told the General Assemblys committee on legal affairs Even a few of such instances or allegations of crimes committed by UN personnel is highly damaging for the image and credibility of the United Nations system and its work around the world he addedHis statement also touched on the practice of some countries that protect their wrongdoers at the UN Umasankar demanded that secretariat disclose how many cases of serious misconduct by UN personnel were registered and the number of cases where the UN refused to waive immunity to allow their prosecutionHe also wanted to know in how many cases the host country wanted the immunity waived so it can prosecute those accused the number of times the UN asked the host country or the country that sent them to prosecute them how many times it consulted countries before waiver of the immunity of their personnel and how many of them refused UNs request to waive their citizens immunityThe information he wanted does not cover the diplomats sent by member countries to represent them at UN bodies and enjoy diplomatic immunity with the nations hosting the UN facilitiesAfter scores of serious allegations of sexual misconduct by peacekeepers especially exploitation of children the UN vowed to uphold a policy of zero tolerance and began publishing data on such cases in peacekeeping operations including how they were dealt with Starting with the year 2015 it began identifying the nationalities of those accusedHowever it has not made public a roster detailing all the allegations and proven cases of serious misconduct across the entire UN While the focus has been on sexual exploitation and abuse reported on peacekeeping operations Umasankar said that at a broader level the issue of accountability has remained elusive in some casesHe attributed it to the complexities of legal aspects relating to sovereignty and jurisdiction the immunity or privileges that may be necessary for UN operations and the capability or willingness of countries to investigate and prosecute the accusedHe noted that the UN itself cannot make criminal prosecutions While Indian laws has provisions for dealing with crimes committed abroad by its citizens not all countries have them he said Those countries should be encouraged and helped to implement such measures he added