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3) Functioning on the basis of international agreements. As a
rule, the operation of IGOs is defined by the international agreements
regulating the activities of their participants and the operation of the
organizations themselves. Such agreements may be concluded by a
nation state as well as by other subjects of international law.
For example, the European Union is currently engaged into the
activities of several international fishing organizations. Constituent
documents, decisions and resolutions of the governing bodies, as well
as agreements with other subjects of international law define the IGOs
duties and rights, the scope of their competence, limits of authority in
accordance with the will of the participating countries.
4) Presence of clearly identified objectives; IGOs are to carry out
joint activities in specific areas:
A) Political (OSCE);
B) Military (NATO);
C) Scientific and technological (EURATOM);
D) Economic (EU, ASEAN, APEC);
E) Financial and credit (IMF, World Bank);
F) Social (ILO, WHO), etc.
Apart from these, there are organizations which coordinate the
joint efforts of states in a variety of areas (UN).
5) Presence of bodies operating on a permanent basis. This
characteristic refers to the fundamental ones indicating the permanent
nature of an organization and the level of its institutional development.
Almost all IGOs have a system of permanent and temporary bodies
responsible for different aspects of their activities. As a rule, the
structure of an organization includes its headquarters, principal and
subordinate organs. The supreme body may be the assembly session
which is usually convened at least once a year. The executive functions
are assigned to the board of an organization, the management staff of
full-time employees – to the general or executive secretary.
The competence of the institutions and bodies of an IGO derives
from the competence of an organization. It is defined by its constituent
documents and intergovernmental agreements and may be changed
only by the will of the participating nations.
There are various bases for classification of the institutions and
bodies of IGOs. For example, depending on the nature of
membership, they may be classified into:
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A) Inter-governmental;
B) Inter-parliamentary;
C) Executive;
D) Including representatives of interested groups (for example,
trade unions and business – ILO).
Inter-governmental bodies including representatives of member
countries are vested with the necessary powers and may be
considered as the most important ones.
The activities of absolutely all IGOs are impossible without a
system of executive bodies. Typically, they include international
officials, the employees of these organizations who are under its
control and are accountable to the organizations and assigned on a
contractual basis in accordance with the quotas for all member states.
Bodies and institutions which include the representatives of
member countries in their personal capacity are also fairly common.
For example, in such a way the staffs off international courts, various
advisory councils, commissions, etc. are formed.
The number of members may be designated as another basis
for the classification of bodies and institutions of IGOs. Thus, one may
distinguish:
A) Plenary bodies composed of the representatives from all
participating countries;
B) Bodies with limited membership.
The role of plenary bodies in solving the primary issues of IGOs
functioning may be considered as an indicator of democracy within
them. Among those issues may be the following:
A) Identification of the most important principles;
B) Drafting of agreements and resolutions;
C) Financing;
D) Changes in statutory documents;
E) Admission of new members, as well as the issues related to
the exit from an organization.
Bodies of limited membership are formed taking into account that
their decisions should reflect the position of the widest possible
number of the IGO participants. The most common methods of
forming such bodies are by far the following:
A) Fair representation on a geographical basis;
B) Considering divergent interests of different countries;
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C) Share in the financial support of an IGO;
D) Political representation (for example, taking into account a
position of the permanent members of the UN Security Council in
those organs of the organization where they have no permanent
establishment).
The recruitment into various bodies may be carried out on the
basis of a single principle or a combination thereof. Thus, the UPU
Convention provides for the appointment of the participating countries
representatives to the Executive Committee on the basis of equitable
geographical representation. At the same time, the Assembly of the
International Maritime Organization is formed taking into account the
interest of the participants in international seaborne trade and the
provision of shipping services. The UN Trusteeship Council was
completed on the basis of equal representation of different interests.
Formation of IGO bodies may be based on more than one
criterion. Thus, the UN Security Council combines the principle of fair
geographical representation with taking into account the degree and
the nature of participation of the organization members in the
implementation of its tasks. The following factors should also be
considered as a basis for classification of IGO bodies:
A) Hierarchy – the governing bodies and the secondary ones;
B) Frequency of their functions performance – permanent,
temporary, and so on.
6) Possession of international legal personality. Organizations
acquire certain obligations and rights as a result of their delegation
from the member states. However, they also acquire their own duties
and rights in addition to the original ones in the course of their
operation. As a result, one can talk about the emergence of the IGOs
own will not always coinciding with the will of their members, which
means that in their activities organizations are free to choose how to
perform the duties assigned to them by their founders as well as how
to exercise their rights.
At the same time, the responsibilities and rights of IGOs are
derived from the duties and rights of their members. Without the
approval of the latter no organization may take any steps regarding
the interests of their member states who have the right to ban virtually
any action of an IGO. Thus, IGOs have no right to go beyond the
powers granted to them by their constituent documents.
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7) Functioning on the basis of international legal norms. This
provision requires strict compliance of organizational and constituent
documents with international legal norms. Creation of an IGO against
international law entails the following:
A) Recognition of their constituent documents null and void;
B) Termination of such organizations functioning in the shortest
possible time.
8) Strictly defined procedure for decision-making within
organizations. This means that there are established procedures for
decision-making in almost all IGOs. The legal force of such decisions
fully depends on the will of member states.
These decisions reflect the will of member nations under the
provisions of the statutes and procedural rules of an organization.
The decision-making process is influenced by the following:
A) Standards set by the founding documents;
B) Procedural rules;
C) Body composition and balance of power within it.
The starting point in decision making is putting forward an
initiative. Its source may be a member nation or a group of them, as
well as individual agencies and officials of an IGO. The initiative should
be preceded by a detailed analysis of the debated issue by its authors.
Other members of an organization may also put forward their solutions.
Quite often a practice of attracting co-authors to develop the draft
decisions is used. However, if the number of co-authors is large, there
may be difficulties in the coordination of their proposed solutions.
Then the draft decision is included in the agenda of the body in
whose competence it is. For example, the UN General Assembly
announces its agenda sixty days before the opening of its session. At the
same time, additional items may be included in the agenda thirty days
before the beginning of the session. Urgent questions may be included
less than thirty days before the session, as well as during it.
The temporary agenda is formed by the General Committee and
accepted or rejected by the General Assembly. The agenda of the
plenary meetings of the UN specialized agencies is prepared by their
executive bodies.
The stage of discussion plays a very important role in the course
of decision making. Almost all the draft resolutions of IGOs are
examined by auxiliary bodies before they are submitted to a plenary
body for discussion. This contributes to a huge attention to the
functioning of the organization’s auxiliary bodies and institutions.
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Voting is a key step in making any significant decisions. Typically,
each member has only one vote. However, in some cases the socalled balanced decision-making may be applied according to which
the weight of the states may vary depending on the established
criteria. Thus, financial institutions of the United Nations recognize
that every participant has a number of votes in accordance with the
contribution to the budget of the organization. In addition, each
institution defines the quorum necessary for making decisions, for
example, a simple majority of the participants’ votes.
Decision may be made by simple or qualified majority with
absolute or relative unanimity. Usually absolute unanimity is hard to
achieve, that is why the work of an entire body may be paralyzed by
just one party. This resulted in the abandonment of this principle and a
wider use of relative unanimity as well as the simple and qualified
majority.
Both simple and qualified majority may be absolute and relative.
With relative majority the positions of abstention and absent members
are not taken into account, provided that there is a quorum.
With the availability of an absolute majority the positions and
opinions of all the participants are taken into account, while at a
relative majority only the views of the majority of actual voting
members are considered.
In certain situations the IGOs decisions are made by acclamation,
i.e. without actual voting, through the will of the direct participants.
This is in general how procedural decisions are made.
Another common method of decision-making within IGOs is a
consensus. It presumes taking into account all interests, seeking
ways and means for rapprochement of all the positions, general
agreement, and the absence of objections. In fact, a decision is also
made without voting.
Test Your Knowledge
1. Outline the main features of IGOs.
2. What methods of decision making within IGOs do you know?
3. Characterize the types of voting on draft resolutions within
IGOs.
4. What methods of decision making within IGOs involve no
actual voting and why?
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Unit 3.3. International Intergovernmental Organizations:
Classification Patterns and Functions. IGOs can be subdivided into
organizations of general and special competence. The functioning of
the organizations of general competence covers the entire range of
the relationships of their participants (for example, the UN or the
African Union). The cooperation within organizations of special
competence is limited to a single area (NATO, UPU, and so on).
By the nature of their membership, IGOs may be classified as
follows:
1) Open, if joining them is based on a unilateral decision to enter
one or another association;
2) Half-open, if the decision to join an organization is taken by a
majority vote of their members;
3) Closed, if an access of the new members is possible only on
the basis of the participants’ consensus.
One of the most common classifications of IGOs is based on the
areas of their competence: politics, security, economy, trade,
monetary and financial sector, health care, culture, etc.
Classification of IGOs by their nature of authority involves
distinguishing of intergovernmental and supranational organizations.
The former include the bulk of organizations whose job is to
implement the cooperation between the states with full preservation of
their sovereignty. The objective of the latter is to bolster further
integration. This implies delegating some sovereignty to the
supranational level and the decisions of these institutions are
obligatory to citizens and legal persons of their member states.
One of the most common is the classification of IGOs by the
geographical scope of their activities according to which they are
divided into:
1) Global, an access to which is open to any country (UN, WTO,
WHO);
2) Regional, whose members may be only the countries located
in certain regions (NAFTA, MERCOSUR);
3) Sub-regional, which may be joined only by the countries of a
certain part of a particular region (BSEC, GCC).
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Shares of Regional Groupings in the World GDP, World Exports
and Investment (%)
Table 2
Share in
Regional Groupings
European Union (EU) 24 43 19
North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) 26 17 19
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) 29 25 36
the World
GDP
Share
in the World
Exports
Share in
Investment
An important aspect of the IGOs characteristics is their functions.
Thus, the rule-making function involves the development of
standards and norms of behavior for the actors in international
relations. IGOs actively perform the role of multilateral agreement
projects developer, the ground for discussion of such projects, the
controlling authority of their implementation and depositories.
The function of supervision and control involves the control of
international law implementation. Practical ways to implement this
function are:
1) Supervision;
2) Inspection;
3) Investigation of violations.
Normally, the function of supervision and control is performed by
specific bodies and institutions within IGOs. In addition to identification
of international law violations, organizations may establish and apply
negative sanctions against violators. For example, the rights of this
kind are granted to the UN Security Council, the European Court of
Human Rights, the International Atomic Energy Agency.
The function of mediation involves participation of IGOs as
arbitrators in the resolution of international and domestic issues, such
as organizing negotiations between the various parties in armed
conflicts. An example is the participation of the United Nations in the
attempt to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict, the African Union – in the
conflict in Libya, etc.
Advisory function is to create conditions for exchange of
information between the actors in the system of international relations,
making recommendations to stakeholders, etc.
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Organizational function of IGOs implies the formation of internal
conditions for implementation of their tasks, their technical support
and adaptation of organizations to changing external conditions.
Information function involves the collection and dissemination of
information by IGOs within their competence, which contributes to
their transformation into the most important international forums where
many significant problems are articulated and the ways to resolve
them outlined.
Operational function means the implementation of immediate
functions by IGOs with the material and human resources at their
disposal. Thus, as a part of its operational functions, the UN is involved
in the resolution of international conflicts and peacekeeping operations,
while the World Bank and the IMF provide financial assistance, etc.
Test Your Knowledge
1. Characterize the IGOs of general and special jurisdiction.
2. What is presumed by the classification of IGOs on the basis of
their membership?
3. Characterize the classification of IGOs by their competence
area.
4. Explain the classification of IGOs by the nature of their
authority.
5. What is meant by the classification of IGOs on the basis of
their geographical coverage?
6. Outline the functions of IGOs.
Unit 3.4. International Non-Governmental Organizations. Basic
features of international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) are
following:
1) Formation on a different basis than that of an
intergovernmental agreement;
2) Membership of both legal entities and individuals.
“Doctors without Borders”, the League of Red Cross Societies,
“Green Peace”, etc., may serve as the examples of such organizations.
Currently, there are more than 4.000 IOs in the world most of
which are intergovernmental.
Test Your Knowledge
Outline the main features of INGOs.
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Topics for Discussion
1. Changes in the system of international relations after World
War II and the emergence of regional and sub-regional IGOs in Asia,
Africa, and Latin America.
2. Legal status, competence, authority, organizational structure,
and characteristics of decision-making in NGOs (for example, AlQaeda, Doctors without Borders, Green Peace, etc.).
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Chapter IV
Some Aspects of IOs Emergence History
Unit 4.1. Antiquity and the Middle Ages. The most important
prerequisite for international integration was the emergence of the
states, which started in the IV-III millennia B.C.E. Later the
complication of the forms of international communication, the
development of bilateral relations and trade led to the emergence of
the first IOs the vast majority of which were military.
One of the first international associations of this kind was the
Delian League (478–404 and 378–337 B.C.E., 208 member states)
whose tasks included:
1) Joint defense of the ancient Greek city-states (polis) from
external enemies;
2) Resolving conflicts between the city-states;
3) Creating favorable conditions for economic expansion of the
League members.
Map 1. Delian League
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