Invisible children, untouchable cases? States’ legal obligation to protect diplomat children

Ragnhild Holmen Bjørnsen, Researcher PhD of Psychological Anthropology, Faculty of Health and Social Sciences, Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences
Julia Köhler-Olsen, Professor of Law, Oslo Metropolitan University and Professor II of Law, University of Stavanger
Halvor Fauske, Professor of Social Work, Faculty of Health and Social Sciences, Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences
Jan Fadnes, PhD of Mediation in International Conflicts, School of Political Science and International Studies, University of Queensland

Keywords: Diplomat children – Right to protection and child welfare – State obligation – Diplomatic immunity – Third Culture Kids

This article discusses the scope of legal obligation for contracting states to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child to realise children’s right to protection from all forms of violence in diplomat families, while simultaneously acknowledging diplomatic immunity. Based on an in-depth, qualitative study consisting of 43 written and oral accounts of former Norwegian Foreign Services children from 2015 to 2019, we show that children growing up in diplomat families experience infringement of their rights with little attention being paid to their situation by public authorities, neither in a receiving nor a sending state. The effect of being invisible to the authorities of either state is intensified by the legal framework of the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations granting diplomat families and their children immunity from jurisdiction in a receiving state. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, however, requires that measures are taken by contracting states. We suggest certain types of actions by the receiving and sending state that are in line with the legal status of immunity of diplomat families while still supporting the realisation of human rights of diplomat children.

This article has been accepted for publication in Child and Family Law Quarterly in Issue 6, Vol 34, Year 2022.