Role of Independent Organizations in International Law

Introduction:

There is a rise in economic gain due to the growth of international trade. This is benefitting both the states and enterprises. With universalisation of the market, there is a free flow of trade,  generating more economic resources for the growth of the market, research and development, infrastructure, global, market and labour specializations, etc. To manage and govern international trade a number of guidelines, conventions, treaties exist. Their main purpose is to modernize exchanges and reduce trade barriers around the world. To achieve these goals a large number of international organizations (IOs) have been established.

Formation on International Law

Just like domestic legislatures create laws for a country, there is no world government, no world congress or parliament to make international laws. The authoritative statements of international law are made by the treaties between the states. The treaties are considered to be the strongest and binding because they bring a consensual agreement between the countries and this is later on signed. In the statute of the International Court of Justice, there are rules of international law which are customary to state practice, general principles of law that is common to many countries. Domestic judicial decisions and legal scholarships.

The treaties are considered to be the contracts between countries. The promises made between states are first exchanged then in writing it is finalized and then signed. The implementation of the treaty can be debated but the written provisions of the treaty are always binding. An international organization is the only association of states which is established by a treaty between two or more states. Its function is beyond national boundaries. International organizations include all purposes universally accepted organizations, universal functional organizations and regional organizations. The international legal personality is limited to rights, purposes, duties and power which are laid by the treaty. For example, the international legal personality of the United State is derived from the United Nations Charter.

History

The oldest and the first international organization is the International Telly Communication Union found in 1865. The League Of Nations was the first General International Organization which addressed a variety of issue. After World War II this was followed by the United Nations.

Purpose

The purpose of international organizations helps to set international agenda, provide a place for political initiatives, mediates political bargaining and also acts as a catalyst for the coalition- formation. They help to facilitate coordination and corporation among the members.

International Organization

The international organization is also known as the intergovernmental organization. This was established by a treaty. It is governed by international law and has its own international personality such as NATO, United Nations (UN), Council Of Europe, The World Health Organization (WHO), International Police Organization (INTERPOL), International Labor Organization (ILO), Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), etc.

The member states from the whole world are there in International Organizations but due to some geographic limitations such as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization  (NATO), African Union and European Union. There are regional organization also in United Nations such as the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA or ECA) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE). The Central Commission for Navigation on the Rhine is the oldest regional organization which was created by Congress Of Vienna in 1915.

The in United Nations organize their work into agencies such as the United Nations Relief Works agencies. United Nations also have specialized agencies which have member states and are governed independently by them. The examples are Universal Postal Union, International Telly Communication Union, World Health Organization, regional organizations such as the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO).

To distinguish international non-governmental organizations (INGO) which are non-governmental organizations (NGOs) which operate internationally from international organizations, the term intergovernmental is used (IGOs). These include international non-profitable organizations such as the International Committee of the Red Cross, World organization of the Scout movement, Medicine Sans Frontieres, World Economic Forum which represents lobby groups considering the interest of multinational corporations.

There is conflict in the conduct of international organizations with their members’ human rights treaty to establish a legal link between international organizations and their members of Human Rights Treaty obligations. Three approaches are established they are :

• By the act of establishment the treaty obligations can be transferred to international organizations.

• The international organizations can be bound by the law of treaties to interpret their founding treaty according to their members Human Rights Treaty Obligations.

• The members’ Human rights treaty obligations could be bound to international organizations by the obligations of an international corporation.

The international organizations are bound to respect the United Nation Covenant so that their obligations are accepted. For example, United Nation sanctions greatly affect human rights guarantees of International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) especially article 12 which is on free movement and article 14 which is right to judicial review.

To implement the human rights obligations The World Trade Organizations has been criticized for limiting the World Trade Organization members policy space. The article 12 of International Covalent on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) is largely impeded by World Trade Organizations rules. Article 12 of ICESCR is regarding guarantee to Right to Health. US- Clove Cigarettes and Australia- Tobacco Products show that members want to adopt anti-smoking policies which are required by the right to health guarantee in article 12 of ICESCR is impeded by rules of the World Trade Organization. But it is difficult to hold international organizations to responsible for it.

Business Barriers to International Trade

For International Businesses, barriers to trade are very challenging. The barriers to trade include tariffs and quotas because they affect international trade and also the economic stability on the whole. Just before the end of Second World War, several delegates of government met at Bretton Woods Conferences in the US to achieve certain goals and they established and International Trade Organization (ITO) to promote economic recovery and to stabilize the trade of the world after the end of the war. There was a refusal for approval to participate and to formally establish International Trade Organization by US Congress so the establishment of International Treaty Organization was failed. The future of economic cooperation was discussed in Bretton Woods in 1944 and an agreement was reached in which it was observed that there is need to co-operate on monetary and trade issues. This lead to the creation of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and General Agreement Tariffs and Trade.

GATT and WHO

In the legacy document, General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) was a 1947 document which was accepted by all the parties including the United States. It was aimed to reduce the barriers in Trade.

Both trade rule and forum for members are provided by General Agreement Tariff and Trade to discuss and address the issues of the trade. Some basic rules were established for the proper functioning of international trade after several rounds of negotiation by the members. They established three major rules :

• If the tariff is lowered by World Trade Organization then it is bound and all the countries are prohibited from raising the tariff. The bound tariff is applicable to all World Trade Organization members.
• The Most- Favored- Nation rule principles prohibit the discrimination of similar products regardless of their origin and rules related to exportation and importation of goods or payments on the bases of their origin or destination.

• In General Agreement Tariffs and Trade Article III the most prominent requirement was the members was that the members treat imported goods in the same favourable manner than the domestically used products ones the imports have passed customs.

The General Agreement Tariff and Trade had achieved a lot of progress in reduction of tariffs, other multilateral and bilateral trade agreements. There was an emergence of National Protectionism to barriers to trade. In April 1994, more than 100 countries agreed to form the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Marrakesh, Morocco. So in January 1995, WTO came into effect.

The World Trade Organization is :

• A place where the trade problems faced by each member governments are sorted out.

• To keep their trade policies within agreeable limits there were set of rules, contracts and agreements which binds the government.

• World Trade Organization is the only intergovernmental organization responsible for pertaining to the rules of trade between Nations for goods, intellectual property, services, settlement of a dispute and to monitor the policies of the members’ trade. Through neutral procedures which are based on the agreed legal foundation, trade differences are settled harmoniously.

The US protectionist measures (High tariffs, Kota) is one of the examples of the negative impact of trade barriers. The US protectionist measures are taken in an attempt to mitigate the effects of the Great Depression. This was to acquire revenue from tariffs and also to increase the demand for domestically produced goods. The industrialized nation’s response to the crisis of depression was to impose barriers on trade imports. This imposes of barriers to trade imports periodically, paralyzed international trade.

Additional Organizations

There are a number of additional organization working to make free international trade:

• UNIDROIT: The International Institute for the Unification of Private Law (UNIDROIT) is an independent intergovernmental organization. It studies needs and methods for modernizing and harmonizing private and particularly in commercial law between States and group of States.

• UNCITRAL: The United Nations Commission on International Trade Laws (UNCITRAL) was established in 1966 by the UN General Assembly. This organization plays an active role to overcome the disparities in national laws governing international trade which are creating obstacles to the proper flow of trade.

• ICC: The International Chambers of Commerce (ICC) is a Paris based industry group. This organization has worked to harmonized private international law and also playing an important role in arbitrational institutions. Though ICC is working with the UN it is not a Government organization. It is a group made by specially appointed business executives which form a counsel. To ensure their nations business perspectives and to help in the formulation of ICC policies and agendas, the National Committees of business executives volunteer their time. The ICC creates and makes recommendations to intergovernmental organizations and industries to promote uniformity and transparency in international trade.

ICC has been able to harmonize international contract as well as arbitrational practices by codifying the following :

• Incoterms: This is the universally accepted contract terms which govern international transportation.

• Uniform Customs and Practice for documentary credit (UCP600): It defines the terms and the credit rules for documentary credits on demands and guarantees used by banks all over the world.

Hague Conference

A global international organization, the Hague Conference on private international law is working towards harmonization of private international laws. They address individuals and corporations connected to more than 1 state it represents all the continents. It deals with different legal traditions which develop and service multilateral legal instruments which respond to the needs globally.

European Union

The European Union (EU) is a political community established in 1993. It has 28 members states which comprise a single economic market which has reduced the barriers and also obstacles for moving goods investments and services within the community. With the standardization of system of laws and a single currency, Euro the citizens of European Union can work, study, live and do business freely throughout Europe and also enjoy the choice of competitively priced goods and services.

OHADA

he Organization for the Harmonization of Business Law in Africa established in 1993. Its French Acronym is OHADA. It is working for instituting more secure legal and judicial measures. It also establishes a modern and uniform business law to attract investors to African states.

CDIP

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is a UN agency. It develops an international intellectual property (IP) system to ensure creativity and innovate foster economic development by keeping in mind the safeguard of public interest. It announced the establishment of the Committee on Development and Intellectual Property (CDIP) in September 2007.

The purpose of establishing CDIP was to develop a work program for implementation of recommendations which were adopted regarding the WIPO development agenda. The CDIP also mandates to monitor, assess, discuss and report on the implementation of all recommendations.

Conclusion

The international law commission drafts articles on the responsibility of international organizations. It deals mainly with legal responsibility and does not deal with issues like governance and accountability. It does not deal with the criminal responsibilities of individuals who violate international or domestic laws like allegations of sexual offences against UN Peacemakers.

The International law is working to improve the potential of Global Business by opening borders, modernizing, customary exchanges and reducing the trade barriers around the world. For entrepreneurs, it means more opportunities for market and labour growth and specialization, jobs, infrastructure research and developmental and global economic and social stature.

To account for the gap which prevents to hold International organizations responsible for activities in breach of international human rights law undermines the acceptance of international organizations as a forum of international cooperation and also weakens the achievements of UN covenants. Only after the consent of all relevant members, the transfer of treaty obligations take place. The automatic transfer of members obligation to IOS without the consent only disregards the fundamentals of international treaty law. It also weakens the separate legal personality of international organizations. It also deprives them of the essential component of that personality.

For determining the standards of the relevance of substantive human rights for international organizations, the UN Covenants play a very important role. As there are a large number of state parties from all legal traditions these substantive human rights can be considered to be acceptable as customary international law.

To strengthen the impact of UN Covenants on the conduct of international organizations the committees must determine the aspects of substantive human rights obligations which are affecting the conduct of the international organization. By identifying the member’s human rights obligations when acting in an international organization, will help to clarify the obligations of international organizations.