Principle 4: independent and Impartial Investigators investigators have both functional and non-retaliatory immunity in order to ensure that they are able to perform their professional functions without undue interference, exposure to liability, or reprisals.534 Functional immunity provides protection to investigators against criminal or civil sanctions related to professional actions made in good faith during the course of an investigation.535 Non-retaliatory immunity refers to policies within an investigative body, or executive agencies that have authority over the investigative body, that provide protection from reprisals in the form of adverse employment action such as dismissal, decrease in compensation, poor work assignments, harassment, or threats of professional consequences.536 Provision of these forms of immunity enables investigators working on politically complex and sensitive cases to execute their professional responsibilities independently while being protected from arbitrary actions by governments or other parties attempting to impose undue interference on an investigation.537 States should also ensure that authorities physically protect investigators and their families when their personal safety is threatened as a result of the discharge of professional functions.538 534 See Standards of Professional Responsibility and Statement of the Essential Duties and Rights of Prosecutors, supra note 320, § 6 (While there are no internationally recognized due process guidelines specific to election investigators, it is possible to extend international due process principles for assessing the conduct of judges, prosecutors, and lawyers to these investigations. In this context, immunity connotes an investigator’s autonomy to “perform professional functions without intimidation, harassment, improper interference, or unjustified exposure to administrative, civil, or penal liability.”). 535 Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers, supra note 376, ¶ 20 (lawyers shall enjoy “civil and penal immunity for relevant statements made in good faith in written or oral pleadings or in their professional appearances before a court, tribunal or other legal or administrative authority”); see also OHCHR Manual, supra note 374, at 123. 536 See U.N. Handbook on Practical Anti-Corruption Measures for Prosecutors and Investigators, supra note 80, at 41. See, e.g., Retaliation, U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Comm., http://www.eeoc.gov/laws/types/retaliation.cfm (last visited Jan. 1, 2015) (“The law forbids retaliation when it comes to any aspect of employment, including hiring, firing, pay, job assignments, promotions, layoff, training, fringe benefits, and any other term or condition of employment.”). 537 See generally Standards of Professional Responsibility and Statement of the Essential Duties and Rights of Prosecutors, supra note 320, § 6. 538 Basic Principles on the Independence of the Judiciary, supra note 112 (“Without prejudice to any disciplinary procedure or to any right of appeal or to compensation from the State, in accordance with national law, judges should enjoy personal immunity from civil suits for monetary damages for improper acts or omissions in the exercise of their judicial functions.”); Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers, supra note 376, ¶ 17 (“[W]here the security of lawyers is threatened as a result of discharging their functions, they will be adequately safeguarded by authorities.”); U.N. Guidelines on the Role of Prosecutors, supra note 320, §§ 3–7. 143