Most borrowed book at UN library is thesis on immunity from war crimes prosecution
A doctoral thesis on how to be immune from war crimes prosecution, turned out to be the most checked out book in 2015 of the Dag Hammarskjöld Library at the United Nations’ headquarters.
The library, named after the second UN Secretary General, is home to many UN publications and other materials for use by UN staff and national delegates.
It announced its most popular book for 2015 in a tweet, which many of its followers found very disconcerting.
What was our most popular book of 2015? Find it in our library catalogue! https://t.co/hmfeCmGKCj (UN only) pic.twitter.com/niGXUxHtGt
— UN Library (@UNLibrary) December 31, 2015
The tweet was met with replies including “This is not a good sign by the title”, “This is a bit scary”, “UN bodies most popular library read of 2015? How to get away with international crimes if you’re a Head of State”
The doctoral thesis “immunity of heads of state and state officials for international crimes” was written by Ramona Pedretti of the University of Lucerne in Switzerland.
It examines among other things, the immunity of heads of state and state officials from criminal jurisdiction of a foreign state and immunity from international criminal jurisdiction, and interdependency between the two.
By Emmanuel Odonkor