## Facts

- On July 10, 1985, the Greenpeace vessel *Rainbow Warrior* was sunk by explosives while moored in Auckland Harbour, New Zealand.
- The sinking caused the death of Fernando Pereira, who drowned when the ship sank.
- France later acknowledged that agents of its external intelligence service (DGSE), acting on instructions, carried out the operation.
- New Zealand arrested and prosecuted two DGSE agents, Major Alain Mafart and Captain Dominique Prieur.
- On November 4, 1985, the agents pleaded guilty to offenses including manslaughter and willful damage to a ship by explosive and were sentenced to ten years’ imprisonment in New Zealand.
- Diplomatic negotiations failed, largely because France sought the agents’ release or major sentence mitigation while New Zealand insisted its criminal sentences be respected.
- In June 1986, France and New Zealand jointly referred their remaining disputes to the U.N. Secretary-General to issue a binding ruling.

## Issues

1. Whether France must provide a formal apology to New Zealand and in what terms.
2. What monetary compensation France must pay for the consequences of the sinking, including New Zealand’s costs, losses relating to *Rainbow Warrior*/Greenpeace, and Pereira’s death.
3. What arrangement should govern the agents’ custody, reconciling New Zealand’s criminal judgments with France’s request for transfer.
4. What mechanisms should address compliance and any later disagreements over implementation.

## Decision

- France was required to deliver a formal and unqualified apology at the prime-ministerial level for the attack, characterized as contrary to international law.
- France was required to pay monetary compensation covering specified categories of damage, including New Zealand’s costs and compensation associated with Greenpeace and Pereira’s family.
- New Zealand was to transfer Mafart and Prieur to French custody subject to their continued detention; the ruling required them to remain for three years on the French atoll of Hao at a military installation under conditions amounting to detention.
- The ruling provided monitoring and a method for addressing disputes about compliance with the custody arrangement.

## Legal Principles

- Conduct of state intelligence agents acting on instructions is attributable to the state for purposes of international responsibility.
- A breach of another state’s territorial sovereignty entails an obligation to provide satisfaction (including a formal apology) and reparation (including monetary compensation) for injury caused.
- Acceptance of state responsibility for an internationally wrongful act does not, by itself, negate or replace individual criminal liability imposed under the forum state’s domestic law.
- International dispute resolution may prescribe tailored remedial arrangements—combining compensation, satisfaction, and supervised custody terms—to settle state responsibility disputes while preserving the punitive effect of domestic sentences.

## Conclusion

The ruling resolved the Rainbow Warrior dispute by requiring France to provide satisfaction through a formal apology, to pay compensation for the consequences of its wrongful act, and to implement a monitored detention transfer that preserved the practical effect of New Zealand’s criminal sentences while addressing France’s demand for custody of its agents.


Ruling Pertaining to the Differences Between France and New Zealand Arising from the Rainbow Warrior Affair (Fr. v. N.Z.), 19 U.N. Rep. Int’l Arb. Awards 199 (U.N. Sec’y-Gen. 1986)