40 | P age b crime they are not applicable. 189 In her fifth report on immunity of state officials from foreign criminal jurisdiction, Special Rapporteur Escobar Hernandez found that the international treaties, international bodies practice, national laws and judicial practice have now tended for the recognition of limitation and exception to immunities from foreign jurisdiction in case of international crimes. 190 The practice, regarding exercise of jurisdiction over foreign diplomats or state officials, shows that Ethiopia remains strict to the adherence of the international law of immunities than other international laws, like Convention against Genocide, UNCAT … which displaced immunity. This can be inferred from the obedience to the immunity of Sudanese head of State – President Omar Al-Bashir- by refraining from prosecuting or answering for call for his arrest by ICC. 191 There is no criminal case, as far as the researchers information is concerned, that entertains foreign state officials in the domestic court. On the other hand the international human rights instruments (ICCPR and UNCAT) require member state to avoid possibilities of impunity of torture perpetrators through immunity. This can be inferred from the jurisprudences of both conventions committees. In this regard the CAT has expressed that granting immunity for torture cases would violate the principle of non-derogability. 192 It also considers that the obligations to prosecute cases of alleged torture under the Convention are incompatible with immunity. 193 Furthermore, the CAT has reiterated that immunity for acts of torture is incompatible with the Convention, in relation to the obligation to provide redress for victims Granting immunity, in violation of international law, to any State or its agents or to non-State actors for torture or ill-treatment, is indirect conflict with the obligation of providing redress to victims. When immunity is allowed bylaw or exists de facto, it bars victims from seeking 189 VCDR; Vienna Convention on Consular Relations (adopted on 24 April 1963, entered into force on 19 March 1967) 596 U.N.T.S. 261 (Hereinafter VCCR); Vienna Convention on Special Missions (adopted on 8 December 1969, entered into force on 21 June 1985) 1400 U.N.T.S. Hereinafter VCSM); Convention on Jurisdictional Immunities of States and Their Property (adopted on 2 Dec. 2004, not yet entered into force) ARES. 190 UNCHR Report of Special Rapporteur on Torture (2016) UN Doc A/CN.4/701. International laws like conventions against torture, enforced disappearance, Un convention against corruption and African convention preventing and combating corruption, Genocide Convention, and convention on the suppression or punishment of crime of apartheid impliedly displace application of immunities form being bar to criminal prosecution in foreign jurisdiction (see Paragraph 33-42). Available at < https://undocs.org/pdf?symbol=en/A/CN.4/701 > (accessed on 29 May 2019). CB. Murungu, Immunity of State Officials and Prosecution of International Crimes in Africa (2011) A thesis for the degree Doctor Legum (LLD) University of Pretoria (Pretoria University Press) 205-221. CAT, GC No. 2, Para 5. ibid.
