Update 2 13:10  Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - A New York appeals court in the US has rejected an appeal by Cynthia Brzak and Nazr Ishak, who filed a sexual harassment suit against the former UN High Commissioner for Refugees Ruud Lubbers and seven other high UN officials. Their lawyer in Geneva, Edward Flaherty, told Geneva Lunch they will appeal the decision, taking it to the US Supreme Court.

“My clients are disappointed with the Court’s judgment, but it was not unexpected,” Flaherty said in a written statement. “As the retaliation against both of them by officials within both UNHCR and the UN, which retaliation gave rise in part to the original suit, continues unabated through the present date, they have no choice but to seek vindication of their constitutional and other rights before the US Supreme Court. Their aim is to end the impunity exercised by UN officials everywhere who are placed beyond the reach of national laws by the UN’s outdated immunity, both in their own case, and on behalf of the many UN staff who have suffered and continue to suffer illegal and/or criminal acts in the workplace, as they have.”

Lubbers was named High Commissioner in 2001 but retired in 2005 under the shadow of the scandal. The appeals court ruled that Lubbers and the others, as United Nations diplomats, have immunity, in line with a US district court decision in 2007 that UN diplomats are immune under  the 1946 Convention on Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations.

The case was heard in the US because Brzak is a US citizen and the incident that provoked the case, accusations that Lubbers improperly touched her during a 2003 meeting, took place in New York. The UNHCR is based in Geneva, where both Brzak and Ishak still work.

Ishak, “is a French-Egyptian colleague of Brzak’s at UNHCR and former two-time UNHCR staff council president, says Flaherty. Ishak “was also a named plaintiff – he advised Cynthia initially after the assault, and beginning with Lubbers, has been targeted for retaliation ever since on account of this assistance.”

Lubbers was named to the UNHCR post by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who did not fire Lubbers because he felt there was insufficient evidence, despite a UN internal investigation that backed Brzak.

“The short and conclusive answer is that legislatively and judicially crafted immunities of one sort or another have existed since well before the framing of the Constitution, have been extended and modified over time, and are firmly embedded in American law,” according to the court’s decision.

Lubbers was for 14 years prime minister of The Netherlands. He is independently wealthy and returned his salary to the UN, as well as his travel expenses during his four years in the UNHCR post.

Links to other sites: IOWatch, UNHCR, MoreLaw, New York Court of Appeals and article on UN immunity abuse published in 2003 by Edward Flaherty

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