Цывкунова Интернатионал Лаw Учебно-методическое пособие 2010

4) Currency and fiscal privileges

Since many international organizations exercise their functions in a number of countries they will need to transfer funds. Several treaties provide that such transactions are to be free from financial restrictions.

For example, the UN Convention provides that the organizations (a) 'may hold funds, gold or currency of any kind and operate accounts in any currency' and (b) may freely transfer their 'funds, gold or currency form one country to another or within any country and to convert any currency held by them into any other currency.'

International organizations are usually exempt from direct taxation of their assets, income and property as well as from custom duties and other import and export restrictions in respect of articles for official use. However, this does not extend to charges for public utility services or sales taxes.

5) Freedom of communication

It is commonly provided that official communications by international organizations shall be accorded treatment at least as favorable as that accorded to foreign governments. In addition it is sometimes provided that no censorship shall be applied to official communications of the organization and that the organization shall have the power to use codes as well as couriers and bags having the same status as diplomatic couriers and bags.

International organizations should not use their privileges and immunities to circumvent either the domestic laws of States or their responsibility towards third parties.

Finally, it must be remembered that international organizations remain responsible in international law for breaches of their obligations even if they are immune from process before domestic courts.

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Task 6. Focus on Definitions. Find in the text the words that mean the following:

•an action that breaks a law, rule or agreement;

•to avoid a problem or rule that restricts you, especially in a clever or dishonest way;

•the buildings and land that a shop, restaurant, company etc uses;

•to state officially that a right, a rule etc can be ignored;

•the practice or system of examining books, films, letters etc to remove anything that is considered offensive, morally harmful or politically dangerous;

•not affected by something, or not having to do it or pay it.

Famous quotations

1) We must indeed all hang together, or most assuredly, we shall all hang separately. (Benjamin Franklin at singing of the Declaration of Independence, 4 July 1776.)

2) “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved – I do not expect the house to fall – but I do expect that it will cease to be divided. (Abraham Lincoln, Speech at the Republican Convention, 16 June 1858.)

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Unit II. Section 2

The United Nations: Purposes and Principles

BRUSH UP YOUR KNOWLEDGE

•When was the UN established?

•Where are the headquarters of the UN situated? Name the regional headquarters.

•Can you name the incumbent UN Secretary General? Whom did he succeed?

•How many states are considered to be the members of the UN?

•What are the official languages of the UN?

Task 1. What is a preamble? Read the Preamble to the UN Charter.

WE THE PEOPLES OF THE UNITED NATIONS DETERMINED

•to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind, and

•to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small, and

•to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained, and

•to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,

AND FOR THESE ENDS

•to practice tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbors, and

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•to unite our strength to maintain international peace and security, and

•to ensure, by the acceptance of principles and the institution of methods, that armed force shall not be used, save in the common interest, and

•to employ international machinery for the promotion of the economic and social advancement of all peoples,

HAVE RESOLVED TO COMBINE OUR EFFORTS

TO ACCOMPLISH THESE AIMS

Accordingly, our respective Governments, through representatives assembled in the city of San Francisco, who have exhibited their full powers found to be in good and due form, have agreed to the present Charter of the United Nations and do hereby establish an international organization to be known as the United Nations.

Task 2. What guiding motives and underlying goals does the Preamble set forth? Find in the Preamble the English equivalents for the following word combinations:

•основные права человека;

•поддерживать международный мир и безопасность;

•в должной форме и надлежащем порядке;

•проявлять терпимость;

•источники международного права;

•грядущие поколения;

•предъявлять полномочия;

•вооруженные силы.

Task 3. Translate into English:

• Основные положения Устава ООН были выработаны на конференции представителей СССР, США, Великобритании, а

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также Китая, состоявшейся в 1944 г. в Вашингтоне. Здесь были определены название Организации, структура ее Устава, цели и принципы и т.д. Но некоторые важные вопросы (о первоначальных членах Организации, о процедуре голосования в Совете Безопасности) были урегулированы позднее, на Крымской конференции руководителей трех держав. Окончательный текст Устава был согласован на Конференции Объединенных Наций в Сан-Франциско в 1945 г. с участием представителей 50 государств.

• Торжественная церемония подписания Устава состоялась 26 июня 1945 г. Устав подлежал ратификации подписавшими его государствами в соответствии с их конституционной процедурой. Ратификационные грамоты сдавались на хранение Правительству США, выполнявшему функцию депозитария. Предусматривалось, что Устав вступит в силу после сдачи на хранение ратификационных грамот СССР, США, Великобританией, Китаем и Францией, т.е. государствами, получившими статус постоянных членов Совета Безопасности, и большинством других государств, подписавших Устав. Таким днем явилось 24 октября 1945 г. Дата вступления в силу Устава ООН считается днем учреждения ООН, и отмечается ежегодно как День Объединенных Наций.

Task 4. a) Read Article 1 and Article 2 of the UN Charter. Give Russian equivalents for the vocabulary items in bold type.

b) What are the four purposes of the UN described in Article 1? Speak of the principles for the UN and its members.

Article 1

The Purposes of the United Nations are:

1. To maintain international peace and security, and to that end: to take effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to the peace, and for the suppression of acts of aggression or other breaches of the peace, and to bring about by peaceful means, and in conformity with the principles of justice and international law, adjust-

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ment or settlement of international disputes or situations which might lead to a breach of the peace;

2.To develop friendly relations among nations based on respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples, and to take other appropriate measures to strengthen universal peace;

3.To achieve international co-operation in solving international problems of an economic, social, cultural, or humanitarian character, and in promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion; and

4.To be a centre for harmonizing the actions of nations in the attainment of these common ends.

Article 2

The Organization and its Members, in pursuit of the Purposes stated in Article 1, shall act in accordance with the following Principles.

1.The Organization is based on the principle of the sovereign equality of all its Members.

2.All Members, in order to ensure to all of them the rights and benefits resulting from membership, shall fulfill in good faith the obligations assumed by them in accordance with the present Charter.

3.All Members shall settle their international disputes by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and security, and justice, are not endangered.

4.All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations.

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5.All Members shall give the United Nations every assistance in any action it takes in accordance with the present Charter, and shall refrain from giving assistance to any state against which the United Nations is taking preventive or enforcement action.

6.The Organization shall ensure that states which are not Members of the United Nations act in accordance with these Principles so far as may be necessary for the maintenance of international peace and security.

7.Nothing contained in the present Charter shall authorize the United Nations to intervene in matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any state or shall require the Members to submit such matters to settlement under the present Charter; but this principle shall not prejudice the application of enforcement measures under Chapter VII.

Task 5. Choose one of the following topics and make reports:

•The Secretary-General of the United Nations: functions, selection, role, interesting facts.

It’s interesting to know

The first UNSG, the Norwegian Trygve Lie, summed up the difficulties of the post when passing the job to the Swede Dag Hammarskjöld in 1953: “Welcome to the most difficult job on earth.”

•The UN Charter in brief.

e.g. The UN Charter consists of a preamble and a series of articles divided into chapters. Chapter 1 sets forth … Chapter 2 defines … The

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bulk of the document is contained in chapters 3 through 15, which describe … The Charter was subject to ratification … It entered into force …

•The Millennium Development Goals: an ambitious development agenda for the new century?

Task 6. Listening Comprehension: The world’s coming authority deficit (interview with Peter David, foreign editor of The Economist)

a)Focus on Words. The word AUTHORITY has the following meanings in Russian:

•власть

e.g. supreme authority, to have / to exercise authority

•полномочие, право, права, компетенция

e.g. unrestricted authority, excessive authority, to abuse one’s authority

•pl. власти, начальство, администрация

e.g. local authorities, law-enforcement authorities / agencies

•авторитет, вес, влияние

e.g. to undermine somebody’s authority

•авторитет, крупный специалист e.g. he is an authority on law

•авторитетный источник

e.g. to quote one’s authorities

b)How would you translate the title of the interview – The world’s coming authority deficit?

c)Provide Russian equivalents for the following word combinations. Provide the context in which they are mentioned.

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oddly enough; the sole surviving superpower; a multi-polar world; to reinforce international rules of the game; to assert its own strength and power; to look to the UN; an asymmetrical world; at the end of the day; to act in its own interests; to act in contravention of the UN Charter; reluctance to take responsibility; obsolete; to find a new lease of life; likeminded countries; standing (military) alliance; their main selling point; a begging bowl; to go with the flow; to re-inject some sense of order and control; the ebbing of authority.

Task 7. Answer the following questions:

1)What historical perspective on authority deficit does Peter David provide?

2)How does the speaker explain that the UN has done a much less good job at restoring international order after the Cold War?

3)What does the speaker think about NATO’s authority in the world?

4)What should we do about the erosion of authority according to the speaker?

5)Do you agree with the speaker that the world is facing authority deficit nowadays? Prove your point of view.

International Relations: Speeches

Barack Obama

Speech at the 64th General Assembly Session

(September 23, 2009)

…This body was founded on the belief that the nations of the world could solve their problems together. Franklin Roosevelt, who died before he could see his vision for this institution become a reality, put it this way - and I quote: “The structure of world peace cannot be the work of one man, or one party, or one Nation…. It cannot be a peace of large nations - or of small nations. It must be a peace which rests on the cooperative effort of the whole world.”

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