International Organisations

International organizations are transnational organizations that are held together by formal agreements and that contain elements of formal institutional structure. International organizations can be divided into two types of organizations: intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). IGOs are those whose membership is composed of state parties. NGOs are groups with global interests and activities but whose membership is independent of state governments. Examples of the former include the United Nations (UN), the World Trade Organization, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the International Seabed Authority, and the International Monetary Fund. Examples of the latter include the International Red Cross, Doctors without Borders, the World Wildlife Fund, and Human Rights Watch. International organizations can be global in their focus, such as the Universal Postal Union or the World Bank, or they can be regional in nature, such as the Organization of American States or the African Union. Currently, it is estimated that there are approximately six thousand IGOs and forty thousand NGOs around the globe, for a total of forty-six thousand international organizations worldwide.

International Governmental Organizations:

Functions

IGOs have been a part of the international system for over a hundred years, since the establishment in 1865 of the International Telegraphic Union (now the International Telecommunications Union).

Since the end of World War II (1939–1945), IGOs have commanded a progressively more prominent place in the international system. While states still maintain pride of place as the primary actors in the international system, IGOs have become increasingly active in a number of areas. IGOs serve as forums for discussion and debate, serve as experts in particular areas of interest, provide humanitarian and other forms of assistance around the world, and facilitate state interactions by providing bodies of rules and methods of enforcement in areas such as trade, weapons proliferation, and environmental protection. Specific examples include the UN High Commissioner for Refugees’ providing shelter, aid, and relocation services to refugees around the world and the World Trade Organization’s settling trade disputes between its members before they escalate into trade wars.

More specifically, the functions of IGOs can be divided into several categories: informational, forum, normative, rule creating, rule supervisory, and operational. These are each discussed in turn.

IGOs serve an informational function through the gathering, analyzing, and disseminating of data. This is an important function because many IGOs are composed of experts in certain fields who are in the best position to provide information to the IGOs themselves and to member states. An example of this would be the UN Development Programme, which collects, analyzes, and disseminates data on climate change. Often researchers from IGOs have more opportunity to carry out their research all over the world than they would if they were acting on behalf of individual states.

The forum function of IGOs provides for settings in which members can meet to exchange views, work out compromises to difficult problems, and cooperate on issues relevant to the global community. This occurred, for example, when the global community came together to draft the Kyoto Protocol to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, working together to create emissions-reduction targets to reduce greenhouse gas levels. The Group of Twenty, or G20, is another example of an IGO whose global influence continues to increase due to the forum function this group provides to member states in discussing and setting global economic issues.

The normative function stems from the fact that IGOs are often responsible today for determining and defining the appropriate standards of behavior for their members in the global system. This can trickle down and have a universal effect on the behavior of states and other organizations in the international system. A primary example of this is the adoption by the UN General Assembly of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which has been held as the global standard for human rights aspirations for over sixty years and is referred to not only by states but by other international organizations such as the European Union (EU), the Organization of American States, and Amnesty International.

With regard to the rule-creation function, many IGOs are responsible for drafting legally binding multilateral treaties. The UN, for example, is responsible for the inception of many of the major multilateral treaties in existence today, including the Convention against Torture, the Kyoto Protocol to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods, and the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty. Because IGOs often have global representation of membership and provide a ready forum for discussion, they are natural forums for the creation of such treaties.

Closely related to the rule-creation function is the rule supervisory function. Many of the multilateral treaties created by IGOs contain within their provisions the establishment of new organizations responsible for monitoring compliance with the treaties. Responsibilities of these groups may include accepting state reports of compliance and monitoring compliance with the treaty provisions, settling disputes that arise over treaty provisions, and if available, enforcing the treaty provisions and punishing breaches. As described below, there is ongoing debate within the field of political science as to whether IGOs can truly be effective if they do not have enforcement powers.

The final primary function of IGOs is operational. IGOs such as the UN High Commissioner for Refugees collect global resources for housing, clothing, and feeding refugees around the world. The organization is also responsible for the logistics of determining when a situation needs refugee assistance, finding locations for refugee settlements, and distributing resources as appropriate. The fact that this responsibility is delegated to a specific international organization provides a more rapid response than might otherwise be available and can streamline the process from the UN to the refugees in need.

Under modern international law, IGOs have gained a rather significant degree of legal personality, capable of entering into agreements among themselves or with states and responsible for a growing number of tasks on behalf of the community of states. In 1949, the UN sought an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice on the question of whether the UN could seek damages on behalf of its employees who might be injured or killed while on assignment. In its decision, Reparations for Injuries Suffered in the Service of the United Nations, the court held that given the functions, rights, and responsibilities given to the UN by its member states, the UN must be held to have legal personality; otherwise, it could not function as intended. This decision recognized that IGOs have legal personalities of their own and are capable of acting in the international systems as separate entities from the member states that form them.