Legal Analysis of the Exemption of Iranian Red Crescent Relief Workers from Compensation for Traffic Accident Injuries

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: The main activities of the Red Crescent rescuers are to rescue and release the injured. Most of the actions of these forces in road accidents cause damage to the body and rights of injured persons and third parties. These damages, which are required to carry out the activities of the relief force, are allowed subject to the normal damage; however, they are responsible for the damages that result from their indulgence and misappropriation. The main question is "What are the legal principles of exemption of relief workers from civil liability and how is it possible to combine the protection of the rights of the victims toward their bodies, lives, and property with supporting the good intentions and actions of the aid workers and performing their legal duties? METHODS: This descriptive-analytical research describes the subjects or phenomena and their conditions and elements. Considering that to conduct research and explain the content, the provision of legal analysis is based on the analytical method, the method of data analysis is also based on the logical analysis. In this research, documents at traditional and digital libraries were used for data collection and note-taking was employed as the tool to gather data. FINDINGS: This study, through contrasting the two ideas of protecting aid workers and the rights of victims to physical integrity, aimed to destabilize the relief workers' exemption based on such principles as beneficence, rule of law, urgency, and benevolent intervention and determine the limits and conditions of such exemption to ensure that the guaranteed rights of the injured individuals are not violated on their bodies and property. CONCLUSION: It seems that the rule of law is the only basis that can always justify the relief workers' exemption from civil liability and other justifiable factors cannot always be compatible with the situation of relief workers. According to the rule, beneficence, the rule of law, benevolent intervention, and urgency can be considered factors in exempting relief workers. However, matching the situation of the rescuers with the justifiable factors shows that the main basis of the rescuers' exemption is the rule of law, which gives them the authority and duty to carry out rescue operations, and the necessary damages to rescue the injured is based on the rule of "permission in the object results in permission in its consequences".