Organization established by treaty between governments
Theoffices of theUnited Nations inGeneva (Switzerland), which is the city that hosts the highest number of international organizations in the world[1]
Aninternational organization, also known as anintergovernmental organization (IGO) or aninternational institution, is anorganization that is established by atreaty or other type of instrument governed byinternational law that possesses its own legal personality, such as theUnited Nations, theCouncil of Europe,African Union,Mercosur andBRICS.[2][3] International organizations are composed of primarilymember states, but may also include other entities, such as other international organizations, firms, and nongovernmental organizations.[4] Additionally, entities may hold observer status.[5]
Within the international relations literature, international organizations facilitate cooperation between states by reducingtransaction costs,[6][7] providing information,[6][7][8] makingcommitments more credible,[6] establishingfocal points for coordination,[6][7] facilitating the principle of reciprocity,[6] extending the shadow of the future,[6][9][10] and enabling interlinkages of issues, which raises the cost of noncompliance.[11] States may comply with the decisions of international organizations, even when they do not want to, forrational cost-benefit calculations (to reap concrete rewards of future cooperation and avoid punishment) andnormative reasons (social learning and socialization).[12][13]
Scottish law professorJames Lorimer has been credited with coining the term "international organization" in a 1871 article in theRevue de Droit International et de Legislation Compare.[16] Lorimer use the term frequently in his two-volumeInstitutes of the Law of Nations (1883, 1884). Other early uses of the term were by law professorWalther Schucking in works published in 1907, 1908 and 1909, and by political science professorPaul S. Reinsch in 1911.[16] In 1935, Pitman B. Potter defined international organization as "an association or union of nations established or recognized by them for the purpose of realizing a common end". He distinguished between bilateral and multilateral organizations on one end and customary or conventional organizations on the other end.[17] In his 1922 bookAn Introduction to the Study of International Organization, Potter argued that international organization was distinct from "international intercourse" (all relations between states), "international law" (which lacks enforcement) andworld government.[18]
IGOs are established by atreaty that acts as a charter creating the group. Treaties are formed when lawful representatives (governments) of several states go through a ratification process, providing the IGO with an international legal personality. Intergovernmental organizations are an important aspect ofpublic international law.
Intergovernmental organizations in a legal sense should be distinguished from simple groupings or coalitions of states, such as theG7 or theQuartet. Such groups or associations have not been founded by a constituent document and exist only astask groups. Intergovernmental organizations must also be distinguished from treaties. Many treaties (such as theNorth American Free Trade Agreement, or theGeneral Agreement on Tariffs and Trade before the establishment of theWorld Trade Organization) do not establish an independent secretariat and instead rely on the parties for their administration, for example by setting up ajoint committee. Other treaties have established an administrative apparatus which was not deemed to have been granted binding legal authority.[19] The broader concept wherein relations among three or more states are organized according to certain principles they hold in common ismultilateralism.[20]
An early prominent example of an international organization is theCongress of Vienna of 1814–1815, which was an international diplomatic conference to reconstitute the European political order after the downfall of the French Emperor Napoleon. States then became the main decision makers who preferred to maintain their sovereignty as of 1648 at the Westphalian treaty that closed the 30 Years' War in Europe.
TheCentral Commission for Navigation on the Rhine, founded in 1815, is the world’s oldest international organization still in operation. The oldest international organization established employing a treaty and creating a permanent secretariat with a global membership was theInternational Telecommunication Union, founded in 1865. TheUniversal Postal Union, established in 1874 as the General Postal Union, is the third oldest extant international organization. The first general international organization—addressing a variety of issues—was theLeague of Nations, founded on 10 January 1920 with a principal mission of maintaining world peace after World War I. TheUnited Nations followed this model afterWorld War II. This was signed on 26 June 1945, in San Francisco, at the conclusion of the United Nations Conference on International Organization, and came into force on 24 October 1945.[21] Currently, the UN is the main IGO with its arms such as the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), the General Assembly (UNGA), the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the Secretariat (UNSA), the Trusteeship Council (UNTC) and the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).
When defined as "organizations with at least three state parties, a permanent headquarters or secretariat, as well as regular meetings and budgets", the number of IGOs in the world increased from about 60 in 1940 to about 350 in 1980, after which it has remained roughly constant.[22]
Worldwide or global organizations – generally open to nations worldwide as long as certain criteria are met: This category includes the United Nations (UN) and its specialized agencies, theWorld Health Organization, theInternational Telecommunication Union (ITU), theWorld Bank, and theInternational Monetary Fund (IMF). It also includes globally operating intergovernmental organizations that are not an agency of the UN, including for example: theHague Conference on Private International Law, an operating intergovernmental organization based inThe Hague that pursues the progressive unification ofprivate international law; theInternational Criminal Court that adjudicates crimes defined under theRome Statute; and theCGIAR (formerly the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research), a global partnership that unites intergovernmental organizations engaged in research for a food-secured future.
Educational organizations – centered around tertiary-level study.EUCLID University was chartered as a university and umbrella organization dedicated to sustainable development in signatory countries. The United Nations has founded multiple universities, notably theUnited Nations University and theUniversity for Peace, for research and education around issues relevant to the UN, such as peace and sustainable development. The United Nations also has a dedicated training arm: theUnited Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR).
Health and Population Organizations – based on common perceived health and population goals. These are formed to address those challenges collectively, for example, the intergovernmental partnership for population and development Partners in Population and Development.
In regional organizations like theEuropean Union,African Union,Indian Ocean Rim Association,NATO,ASEAN andMercosur, there are restrictions on membership due to factors such as geography or political regimes. To enter the European Union (EU), the states require different criteria; member states need to be European, liberal-democratic political system, and be a capitalist economy.[23]
There are several different reasons a state may choose membership in an intergovernmental organization. But there are also reasons membership may be rejected.
Reasons for participation:
Economic rewards: In the case of theNorth American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), membership in the free trade agreement benefits the parties' economies. For example, Mexican companies are given better access toU.S. markets due to their membership. External actors can also contribute to economic rewards and fuel the attractiveness of IGOs – notably for developing countries. For example, external donor funding from the European Union to IGOs in the Global South.[24]
Political influence: Smaller countries, such asPortugal andBelgium, who do not carry much political clout on the international stage, are given a substantial increase in influence through membership in IGOs such as theEuropean Union. Also for countries with more influence such asFrance andGermany, IGOs are beneficial as the nation increases influence in the smaller countries' internal affairs and expanding other nations dependence on themselves, so to preserve allegiance.
Security: Membership in an IGO such asNATO gives security benefits to member countries. This provides an arena where political differences can be resolved.
Democracy: It has been noted that member countries experience a greater degree of democracy and those democracies survive longer.
Reasons for rejecting membership:
Loss ofsovereignty: Membership often comes with a loss of state sovereignty as treaties are signed that require co-operation on the part of all member states.
Insufficient benefits: Often membership does not bring about substantial enough benefit to warrant membership in the organization.
Attractive external options: Bilateral co-operation with external actors or competing IGOs may provide more attractive (external) policy options for member states. Thus, powerful external actors may undermine existing IGOs.[24]
Intergovernmental organizations are provided with privileges and immunities that are intended to ensure their independent and effective functioning. They are specified in the treaties that give rise to the organization (such as theConvention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations and theAgreement on the Privileges and Immunities of the International Criminal Court), which are normally supplemented by further multinational agreements and national regulations (for example theInternational Organizations Immunities Act in the United States). The organizations are thereby immune from the jurisdiction of national courts. Certain privileges and immunities are also specified in theVienna Convention on the Representation of States in their Relations with International Organizations of a Universal Character of 1975,[25] which however has so far not been signed by 35 states and is thus not yet in force (status: 2022).[26]
Rather than by national jurisdiction, legalaccountability is intended to be ensured by legal mechanisms that are internal to the intergovernmental organization itself[27] and access to administrative tribunals. In the course of many court cases where private parties tried to pursue claims against international organizations, there has been a gradual realization that alternative means of dispute settlement are required as states havefundamental human rights obligations to provide plaintiffs with access to court in view of theirright to a fair trial.[28][29]: 77 Otherwise, the organizations' immunities may be put in question in national and international courts.[29]: 72 Some organizations hold proceedings before tribunals relating to their organization to be confidential, and in some instances have threatened disciplinary action should an employee disclose any of the relevant information. Such confidentiality has been criticized as a lack oftransparency.[30]
The immunities also extend toemployment law.[31][32] In this regard, immunity from national jurisdiction necessitates that reasonable alternative means are available to effectively protect employees' rights;[33] in this context, a first instance Dutch court considered an estimated duration of proceedings before theAdministrative Tribunal of the International Labour Organization of 15 years to be too long.[34]An international organization does not pay taxes, is difficult to prosecute in court and is not obliged to provide information to any parliament.[35]
The United Nations focuses on five main areas: "maintainingpeace andsecurity, protectinghuman rights, deliveringhumanitarian aid, supportingsustainable development, and upholdinginternational law".[36]UN agencies, such asUN Relief and Works Agency, are generally regarded as international organizations in their own right. Additionally, the United Nations hasSpecialized Agencies, which are organizations within theUnited Nations System that have their member states (often nearly identical to theUN Member States) and are governed independently by them; examples include international organizations that predate the UN, such as theInternational Telecommunication Union, and theUniversal Postal Union, as well as organizations that were created after the UN such as theWorld Health Organization (which was made up of regional organizations such asPAHO that predated the UN). A few UN special agencies are very centralized in policy and decision-making, but some are decentralized; for example, the country-based projects or missions' directors and managers can decide what they want to do in the fields.[37]
The UN agencies have a variety of tasks based on their specialization and their interests. The UN agencies provide different kinds of assistance tolow-income countries and middle-income countries, and this assistance would be a good resource for developmental projects in developing countries. The UN has to protect against any kind of human rights violation, and in the UN system, some specialized agencies, like ILO and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), work in the human rights' protection fields.[38] The UN agency, ILO, is trying to end any kind of discrimination in the work field and child labor; after that, this agency promotes fundamental labor rights and to get safe and secure for the laborers.[39] United Nations Environment Program(UNEP) is one of the UN's (United Nations) agencies and is an international organization that coordinates U.N. activities on the environment.[40]
^Parish, Matthew (2010). "An essay on the accountability of international organizations".International Organizations Law Review.7 (2):277–342.doi:10.1163/157237410X543332.SSRN1651784.
^Heitz, André (November 2005)."UN Special number 645". Archived fromthe original on 19 October 2013.The French court said... The right to a day in court prevails over jurisdictional immunity
^abReinisch, August; Weber, Ulf Andreas (2004). "In the shadow of Waite and Kennedy – the jurisdictional immunity of international organizations, the individual's right of access to the courts and administrative tribunals as alternative means of dispute settlement".International Organizations Law Review.1 (1):59–110.doi:10.1163/1572374043242330.Pdf.Archived 2013-10-19 at theWayback Machine
^Nations, United."Our Work".United Nations. Retrieved7 May 2022.
^Alesani, Daniele (17 December 2013). "International Institutions. Classification and main characteristics".Management of International Institutions and NGOs: Frameworks, practices and challenges. Routledge. p. 24.ISBN9780415706650.
Barnett, Michael and Finnemore, M. 2004.Rules for the World: International Organizations in Global Politics. Cornell University Press.
Hurd, Ian. 2018.International Organizations: Politics, Law, Practice. Cambridge University Press.
Lall, Ranjit. 2017. "Beyond Institutional Design: Explaining the Performance of International Organizations."International Organization 53: 699–732.
Lall, Ranjit. 2023.Making International Institutions Work: The Politics of Performance. Cambridge University Press.
Lavelle, Kathryn C. (2020): The Challenges of Multilateralism. Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300230451.
Muntschick, Johannes, ed. (2022):Regionalism in Africa and External Partners. Uneven Relationships and (Un)Intended Effects. Cham: Palgrave.doi:10.1007/978-3-031-10702-3.
Claude, Inis L. Jr. (1964) [1959].Swords into Plowshares: The problems and progress of international organization (3rd ed.). New York: Random House.OCLC559717722.
Datasets:
Pevehouse, Jon C.W., Timothy Nordstron, Roseanne W McManus, Anne Spencer Jamison, "Tracking Organizations in the World: The Correlates of War IGO Version 3.0 datasets", Journal of Peace Research.
Roger, Charles., Sam Rowan, "The New Terrain of Global Governance: Mapping Membership in Informal International Organizations.", Journal of Conflict Resolution,67 (6): 281–310.
Lundgren, Magnus; Squatrito, Theresa; Sommerer, Thomas; Tallberg, Jonas (2023). "Introducing the Intergovernmental Policy Output Dataset (IPOD)".The Review of International Organizations.
Eilstrup-Sangiovanni, Mette (2021-03). "What kills international organisations? When and why international organisations terminate".European Journal of International Relations.27 (1).
