The International Law Principle of persona non grata and International Organizations: An Appraisal of the Ethiopian Government’s Expulsion of United Nations Officials in 2021
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Date
2024-09
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Recently, various states have declared persona non grata officials of International Organizations,
one of them being the Ethiopian government expelling seven officials of the United Nations in
2021. Such declarations have not been well received by the International Organizations, mainly
the UN, which claims the principle of persona non grata is not applicable in the case of UN
officials and such declarations as violations of international law. This thesis discusses the
development of privileges and immunities in general, especially focusing on privileges and
immunities of international organizations. Diplomatic immunities are one of the oldest doctrines
in international law in state-to-state relations, attaining the level of international customary law.
As International Organizations are recent phenomena themselves, the idea of privileges and
immunities is not well developed as it is a treaty-based system. The paper analyzes the applicability
of persona non grata in relation to International Organizations. It also discusses the specific
declaration of the Ethiopian government on UN officials in 2021 and examines its legality under
the proper international legal instruments. It also discusses the mechanisms available for States
to utilize in dealing with abuse of privileges and immunities under the legal instruments of different
organizations, focusing on the General Convention and Special Convention. The thesis employs
legal analysis on the principle of persona non grata and its applicability in relation to
International Organizations. The finding of the study indicates, even though the principle of
persona non grata is not available in the legal instruments of different International
Organizations, there is no clear normative legal ground that prohibits states from declaring it.
Which makes the issue very argumentative. But it can be observed that currently states are
declaring persona non grata against officials of International Organizations, which can be seen
as emerging state practice that can develop to attain customary international law status. The
matter needs to get normative ground to be settled, through inclusion in the international legal
instruments or decision and advisory opinions of international judicial institutions like he ICJ.
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Keywords
persona non grata, Privileges and Immunities, International Organizations, General Convention, Special Convention