Iran Takes Canada to International Court Over Civil Damages Case

Iran has taken Canada to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the United Nations' top court, accusing the North American country of violating its “international obligations” related to sovereign immunity, a legal principle which generally shields states from civil lawsuits in foreign jurisdictions. The case arose after a Canadian court awarded 107 million Canadian dollars in civil damages to the families of six victims who were killed when Iranian forces shot down a Ukraine International Airlines flight near Tehran in January 2020.

The ICJ announced the case on Wednesday, saying that Iran is asserting a violation of its sovereign immunity by allowing people to seek civil damages against Tehran. The court case is likely to take years, as rulings by the ICJ are final and legally binding. Iranian officials have said the shooting of the plane was an accident caused by “human error” in operating a surface-to-air defence system. Iran also announced that it would give $150,000 to each of the victims’ families in late 2020. The case involves a 2012 Canadian law which limits the legal immunity of countries on its list of “foreign state supporters of terrorism”, including Iran and Syria.

The law has paved the way for families of victims of the plane crash to seek civil damages in the Canadian court. In its complaint, Iran stated that “the principle of sovereign immunity, which derives from the fundamental principle of sovereign equality, prohibits private parties from suing another State before the courts of the forum State and from seizing its property”. Canada is a close US ally and has imposed numerous sanctions on Iran over human rights abuses.