vallierojas: Diplomatic immunity and the culture of impunity

The case of Dominique Strauss-Kahn is an exception to the rule that NGO officials escape censure for alleged sexual misconduct

Dominique Strauss-Kahn's alleged sexual assault of a hotel chambermaid last Saturday has made an extraordinary story, but is not as exceptional as might be assumed. Whatever the outcome of the Strauss-Kahn case, it is certain that in the upper ranks of international organisations, there exists a culture of impunity that permits highly-placed managers to sexually assault, abuse and harass women ? be they colleagues or domestic workers ? and get away with it. DSK's case is unusual in that diplomatic immunity has not been asserted as a block to the pursuit of criminal charges. Most of the time, this immunity that makes international officials and civil servants of a certain standing act as though they are untouchable.

Domestic workers are particularly vulnerable to diplomats' actions. In 2007, the American Civil Liberties Union compiled 63 documented cases of diplomats sexually, psychologically and physically abusing domestic workers. The following year, the Government Accountability Office released a report that counted 42 cases since 2000, but also said the numbers were likely much higher than those reported. The office made some recommendations to the US state department, which handles diplomatic affairs, but in January, Thomas Melito, the GAO's international affairs and trade director, told me most of them had not yet been implemented. To this day, few allegedly abusive diplomats have faced charges.

Still, a recent case of domestic abuse in a diplomatic household set an encouraging precedent. Vishranthamma Swarna, a maid to former Kuwaiti UN diplomat Badar Al-Awadi, claimed to have suffered sustained mistreatment, including rape, when she was not cooking, cleaning and caring for the diplomat's children in New York. Swarna was isolated: she spoke no English and was banned by her employer from leaving the house. She also inhabited a legal black hole: since her employer, who brought her in on a special visa, had diplomatic immunity, he could not be prosecuted in the United States for his actions.

With help from the ACLU, Swarna was able to take her case to the federal district court of New York, where the judge ruled that her work did not have a "direct ? benefit to diplomatic functions" and that Al-Awadi could subsequently not be protected from prosecution under the Vienna conventions (pdf). The decision means that a diplomat can now be held liable for mistreating a domestic worker, but not for sexually abusing a secretary or intern, whose work is arguably vital to the embassy or consulate's work. It remains to be seen whether victims like Swarna will begin speak up. But even then, their alleged abusers can conveniently relocate. Al-Awadi has since moved to Paris.

Women who work at international organisations also face sex discrimination and harassment, and the more highly ranked their harassers, the less likely they are to get justice.

In 2004, Ruud Lubbers, the high commissioner for human rights, reportedly grabbed Cynthia Brzak, an American employee, and pressed his groin against her buttocks in full view of other UNHCR staff. Brzak and many other female employees report that it is normal to be treated in such a way at the UN and other international organisations. But since filing a complaint is seen as a career-killer, most sexual harassment incidents go unreported. Victims have very little legal recourse, and must go through the UN's complex internal justice system. Brzak pressed charges because she was tired of the permissive culture. "I just wanted a message sent that you cannot keep jumping on women at three in the afternoon," she says today.

What began as a simple request for an apology led to a protracted legal battle. Despite an internal investigation that found Lubbers unequivocally guilty of repeated counts of sexual harassment, Kofi Annan declared that he lacked evidence to charge the official. Lubbers denied the allegations and would not apologise, though he was eventually forced to resign.

In 2006, Brzak filed a complaint against the UN in a New York court, but to no avail: six years and $700,000 in legal fees after the incident, the UN had its immunity upheld. "They need to defend [themselves] because if the immunity is ultimately breached, the UN will be bankrupt in a year or two because of the number of similar cases," says Brzak's lawyer, Ed Flaherty.

Brzak's case was highly publicised, but most are not. Over the course of this year, I have spoken to many women who say that their bosses at the UN, the WHO, Unicef and other international organisations take liberties that would otherwise be punishable by law. Again, very few harassers faced repercussions.

It was a relief to hear from the IMF, the Elys�e palace and the state department that DSK's alleged conduct would not be protected by diplomatic immunity. What lies in store for the former IMF chief remains to be seen, yet the fact that he was arrested and arraigned is, in itself, a significant development. But it will take more than one case to end the culture of impunity.

Atossa Araxia Abrahamian

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