{"id":106,"date":"2009-03-16T09:21:56","date_gmt":"2009-03-16T14:21:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/diplomaticlaw.com\/blog\/?p=106"},"modified":"2009-03-16T09:21:56","modified_gmt":"2009-03-16T14:21:56","slug":"a-united-nations-agency-is-immune-from-a-civil-lawsuit-in-israel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/diplomaticlaw.com\/blog\/?p=106","title":{"rendered":"A United Nations Agency is Immune from a Civil Lawsuit in Israel"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Haggai Carmon<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Does UNRWA, (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East,)<\/em> enjoy absolute immunity from legal proceeding in Israel? A Jerusalem Magistrate\u2019s Court answered in the affirmative.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A medical malpractice lawsuit was brought against a physician, a hospital, a health maintenance organization (HMO) and UNRWA. The plaintiff argued that the doctor, the hospital, the HMO and UNRWA failed to diagnose a birth defect, and as a result, the plaintiff did not seek the early treatment that could have \u2013 according to the complaint \u2013 mitigated or even eliminated the damage caused by the defect. UNRWA failed to appear and Israel\u2019s Legal Advisor to the Government (equivalent in some countries to the position of the Attorney General) appeared in its stead, asking for a dismissal of the complaint against UNRWA due to the organization\u2019s unconditional and absolute immunity in Israel. UNRWA is a United Nations agency established pursuant to a 1949 decision of the General Assembly. Its mandate is extended every three years. The HMO \u2013 through its counsel Eitan Haezrachi \u2013 argued that UNRWA is a \u201cseparate entity\u201d from the United Nations. The court found that and his other arguments against UNRWA\u2019s immunity to be without merit. Israel entered into an agreement with UNRWA: \u201cExchange of Letters between Israel and UNRWA Constituting an Agreement regarding the United Nations Relief and Welfare Agency to Palestinian Refugees in the Near East<\/em>.\u201d Under the agreement, Israel is to assist UNRWA in carrying out its activities. The agreement also provides that \u201cIsrael<\/em> recognizes that the Convention Concerning immunities and Privileges of the United Nations dated February 13, 1946 \u2013 to which Israel is a signatory \u2013 shall regulate the relationship between the Israeli government and UNRWA regarding UNRWA\u2019s duties.<\/em>\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

When Israel became a signatory to the Convention, and the Convention was adopted into Israeli law by Order (a statute) and Decree of the Israeli Foreign Minister, the U.N.\u2019s immunity in Israel was created. The Order set the legal framework for granting immunity to the U.N., and the subsequently issued Decree formed the conclusion that UNRWA enjoys absolute and unconditional immunity from civil lawsuits in Israel. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The HMO\u2019s counsel argued that U.N. immunity should be similar to the immunity granted to sovereign nations, which excludes torts. The court rejected this argument based on the clear language of the Order as well as acceptable doctrines of international law that regard recognized international organizations\u2019 immunity as functional and therefore absolute. Sovereign states\u2019 sovereignty, on the other hand is relative and restrictive. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The complaint against UNRWA was dismissed with costs.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Observing the litigation from an international law perspective brings us to the unavoidable conclusion that the plaintiff\u2019s naming of UNRWA in the complaint and then the attempt of the HMO and the other parties to claim that UNRWA was not immune, was an exercise in futility. The HMO\u2019s counsel, for example, tried to rely on a decision of a Jerusalem court that limited the U.N.\u2019s immunity, although that decision had subsequently been revoked. There were other available legal avenues to share the burden of the litigation if the plaintiff were to prevail, but alas, they were not taken.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Haggai Carmon \u00a0 Does UNRWA, (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East,) enjoy absolute immunity from legal proceeding in Israel? A Jerusalem Magistrate\u2019s Court answered in the affirmative. \u00a0 A medical malpractice lawsuit was brought against a physician, a hospital, a health maintenance organization (HMO) and UNRWA. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/diplomaticlaw.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/diplomaticlaw.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/diplomaticlaw.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diplomaticlaw.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diplomaticlaw.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=106"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/diplomaticlaw.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":108,"href":"https:\/\/diplomaticlaw.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106\/revisions\/108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/diplomaticlaw.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diplomaticlaw.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diplomaticlaw.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}