Topic: 2025 – Criminal Accountability of UN Officials
Country: Italy
Delegate Name: Alexander McBride
Name: Alexander McBride
Country: Italy
Committee: LEGAL
Topic: Criminal Accountability of UN Officials
School: Williamston High School
The criminal accountability of United Nations officials has come into question more recently with UN missions to Haiti, Central African Republic, and the Demecratic Republic of the Congo, with allegations against UN personnel in these nations committing acts from bribery to sexual abuse. These UN officials have immunity to the local laws of the nations deployed to, as to prevent political interference with their operations. While the UN hopes most of their personnel refuse to partake in this kind of behavior, the UN officials that choose to abuse their legal protection to pray on the broken spirits of these nations need to be taken care of to truly help the nations in turmoil.
The Italian Republic in the past has recognized the need for the legal immunity of UN Officials to permit them to conduct their operations effectively, however, Italy has stated its support for these immunities to be removed in order to persecute officials accused of the crimes listed earlier. Italy also understands that those who have committed crimes against humanity, and those who have broken international law need to be punished, without the use of the death penalty.
The Italian Republic is a member state of the European Union, which has published a statement on this topic on October 9th, 2025. This statement clarifies that the United Nations should use the EU’s own Zero-Talerance policy towards this kind of criminal offenses. This statement also recognizes that the rights and interests of victims and whistle-blowers are a necessary part of any functional judicial system, and should be protected. The EU states here that the UN should have prevention measures and retaliatory actions. The UN should look into the past of the personnel it’s sending on these missions. The EU details that the UN should look for other acts of misconduct by personnel, such as racism. The many different organizations of the UN should share this type of information and any other similar reports to the rest of the UN. The EU states that the states sending in personnel to the UN should also go through and check them just as the EU wants the UN to check personnel already serving the United Nations. The European Union also supports the ClearCheck database in the weeding out of unwanted candidates. The EU wants to expand this database while preserving the rights of the officials. The United Nations should conduct a timely investigation of every credible allegation against one of its officials. The United Nations is to take all allegations very seriously, and investigate fully. The EU states that the nation of which the offender in question is from has the primary responsibility of trying them fairly, The EU also says that nations should strive to strengthen their sharing of information regarding the offence of UN personnel with the UN, including the host nation and other nations. Italy welcomes any other countries willing to cooperate to help improve the quality of workers carrying out United Nations Missions.
