In News
The wife of Belgium’s ambassador to South Korea is exercising her diplomatic immunity to avoid charges for allegedly slapping a store assistant in April 2021.
About Diplomatic Immunity
- It is a privilege of exemption from certain laws and taxes granted to diplomats by the country in which they are posted.
- Diplomatic immunity is granted on the basis of two conventions, popularly called the Vienna Conventions that includes:
- the Convention on Diplomatic Relations, 1961, and
- the Convention on Consular Relations, 1963.
- They have been ratified by 187 countries, including South Korea.
- The custom was formed so that diplomats can function without fear, threat or intimidation from the host country.
Extent of Immunity
- According to the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, 1961, the immunity enjoyed by a diplomat posted in the embassy is “inviolable”.
- The diplomat cannot be arrested or detained and his house will have the same inviolability and protection as the embassy.
Types
- Immunity is not the same for all diplomats and their families.
- The Vienna Convention classifies diplomats according to their posting in the embassy, consular or international organisations such as the UN.
- A nation has only one embassy per foreign country, usually in the capital, but may have multiple consulate offices, generally in locations where many of its citizens live or visit.
- Diplomats posted in an embassy get immunity, along with his or her family members.
- While diplomats posted in consulates also get immunity, they can be prosecuted in case of serious crimes, that is, when a warrant is issued.
- Besides, their families don’t share that immunity.
- A nation has only one embassy per foreign country, usually in the capital, but may have multiple consulate offices, generally in locations where many of its citizens live or visit.
Exceptions
- It is possible for the diplomat’s home country to waive immunity but this can happen only when the individual has committed a ‘serious crime’, unconnected with their diplomatic role or has witnessed such a crime.
- Alternatively, the home country may prosecute the individual.
Concerns
- While diplomatic immunity is intended to “insulate” diplomats from harm, it does not insulate their countries from a bad reputation and a blow to bilateral ties.
- The privilege of diplomatic immunity is not for an individual’s benefit. If a diplomat acts outside his business of conducting international relations, a question arises over whether his immunity still applies
Instances of Immunity Abuse In The Past
- In 1967, the Burmese ambassador to Sri Lanka shot his wife whom he suspected of having an affair.
- In 1983, a Saudi Arabian diplomat’s son raped a 16-year-old in the US.
- In April 2012, in Manila, Panamanian diplomat Erick Bairnals Shcks was accused of raping a 19-year-old Filipino woman, but was released from detention because he enjoyed diplomatic immunity.
