“Discuss the International organizations and then distinguishing between international governmental organization (IGOs) and international nongovernmental organization (INGOs)”
Introduction
In general international organizations are based on multilateral treaties between at least two sovereign nation-states. The treaty is formed in order to pursue certain more or less clearly defined common aims in the international arena. In order to differentiate between international governmental organizations (IGOs) like the United Nations, NATO, the IMF, and the World Bank, to name some of the best-known ones, and international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs) like Amnesty International and the International Red Cross. Although estimates differ profoundly, at the turn of the twenty-first century at least five hundred IGOs and eleven thousand INGOs were in existence. They were organized in the Union of International Organizations (founded 1907), which is based in Brussels and publishes the annual Yearbook of International Organizations.
International Government Organization
While INGOs help to clarify international rules and regulations that enable at least two societal actors (parties, issue groups, unions, associations, international businesses, and corporations) to cooperate in the coordination of certain specified transnational and cross-border issues, on the other hand IGOs, with which this research is mostly concerned, are based on the cooperation of nation-states. An IGO is usually based on a multilateral treaty of two or more sovereign nation-states for the pursuit of certain common aims in the international arena. IGO have grown exceedingly numerous especially since the Second World War. It is helpful to differentiate between supranational or semi-supranational IGOs, like the European Union, or looser confederations of states and non supranational IGOs, like the United Nations and NATO. While the former limit the sovereignty of the participating nations to a lesser or greater degree, the latter normally do not infringe on the sovereignty of their member states; they therefore tend to have only a limited degree of influence over their members. Despite the equality of recognized nation-states in international law, in fact a hierarchy of power and influence exists even within non supranational IGOs. The UN Security Council, dominated by its five permanent members, as well as the IMF, the World Bank, and many other IOs, are all dominated by the established great powers, not least on account of their political and military influence and capabilities as well as their financial and economic clout. With the exception of China and Russia, the influential powers of the early twenty-first century all come from the ranks of the West.
To identify the basic characteristics which distinguish the public international organization from other organizations, particularly private international organizations? These are:
(i) establishment by some kind of international agreement among states;
ii) possession of what may be called a constitution;
(iii) possession of organs separate from its members;
(iv) establishment under international law;
(v) generally but not always an exclusive membership of states or governments, but at any rate predominant
membership of states or governments.
Private international organizations do not have all these characteristics. Usually what is lacking is creation by international agreement, establishment under international law and an exclusive or predominant membership of states or governments. Sometimes one or the other of these may be lacking. For example, clearly NGOs are not established under international law, nor have exclusive or predominant state or governmental membership and are not public international organizations.
Major types of International Organization (IGOs):
a)North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO):
The NATO was founded in 1949 in Washington. The foreign ministers of 10 countries signed a defense treaty that committed them to helping each other in the event of attack. There are now 26 country members with headquartered in Belgium.
b) United Nations (UN):
The UN was founded in 1945. Most countries of the world – a total of 191, are members. The general assembly makes major decisions over the peacekeeping of the world. It also enacts laws on the human rights and are very much strict towards it.
c) World Trade Organization (WTO):
The Swiss based WTO encourages International trade by establishing trade agreements between countries. With 153 member countries and consisting more than 97% of entire world trade, it propagates the International trade policies.
d)World Health Organization (WHO):
The WHO is a part of the United Nations. It promotes health matters worldwide and aims to raise medical standards and monitor diseases.
e)International Monetary Fund (IMF):
The IMF was established in 1944 and promotes world trade. It has 184 member countries. Headquartered in Washington D.C., it works to improve the financial condition of its member countries.
Sovereign State
In terms of international law, a community of people is sovereign if it controls land, is self-governing and recognized by other states as a sovereign state. The recognition entitles a nation to participate in the community of sovereign states with all the attached rights and obligations. This entails the right to membership of international organizations and participation in bilateral or multilateral treaties with other sovereign nations. A sovereign state thus has the right to decide its own affairs without interference from other states. It can decide its own constitution, form of government, administrative and other legislation, with the exclusive right to enforce such legislation within its territory. However, the powers of a sovereign state in this respect are limited by the rules of international law, whether such rules originate in treaties or general principles of international law.
International Organization relation with sovereignty of states
International organization has developed through increased co-operation among sovereign States in recent years as, for example, in the European Union. International organization is simply impossible without co-operation among States. International co-operation does indeed depend on a degree of mutual concession among the members of an international organization, be it the United Nations Organization, the European Union, the Organization of American States, the African Union, or whatever. In the field of international human rights law, as well as international environmental law, there is a growing awareness that State sovereignty can be an obstacle to their protection. This awareness has good reason in that human rights or the environment can easily be victimized under an authoritarian administration of a State which places primary importance on economic development, giving priority to the expansion of the scale of economy or burning massive fossil fuels for industrial operations thus polluting the air, rivers and coastal sea waters. To prevent such abuses of human rights and environmental conditions would logically require super-State controls, as advocated by some human rights and environmental law experts. Indeed, as is aptly pointed out by some authors, shifting relations between the promotion and protection of human rights and sovereignty can be observed in three fields:
(1) in the field of international organizations, States accept that the organizations
like the United Nations or the European Union can take decisions on which they
4 no longer have a decisive influence;
(2) in the field of regional and international (quasi-)judicial institutions, States
accept that individuals can turn to these international bodies that have
jurisdiction on human rights issues; and
(3) in the field of conflict and foreign intervention, States tend to accept
infringement on their sovereignty for the protection of individuals from grave
human rights violations
In other words, “Matters which had formerly been considered indispensable exclusive
State functions are presently accomplished by virtue of international cooperation in its
various instrumental modes and forms (international organizations; multilateral
instruments; integrated communities).
Reasons Sovereign State enter into treaty with international organization
States might enter into agreements that delegate authority to an international body in order to overcome a collective action dilemma. Such agreements generally require reciprocal commitments by states—states agree to refrain from acting in certain ways in order to get others to do the same. Hence, for example, states negotiate and enforce lower trade barriers between them, agree to forgo taxing income earned by their citizens in another’s jurisdiction, and offer certain legal protections to the financial investments by the citizens of another country. States jointly agree to protect migratory species such as turtles, whales, and birds; have begun to tackle global warming; and peacefully share and manage fishery stocks and the oil and mineral resources of the seabed. They might also enter into international agreements as a way
of projecting their own values, ideology, and commitment to fair play to others without engaging in costly military conquest. Human-rights law, in particular, might be understood as a mechanism for states with commitments to certain fundamental protections to encourage other states to adopt those same protections for their own citizens. Similarly, international law might be viewed as a way for weaker countries to bind stronger states to rules of conduct. In short, law can be a relatively low-cost means for states to control one another’s behavior.
International Law
International law is made up of the entirety of the legal principles and norms which govern the international community (States and international organizations). Initially, International Law dealt only with the obligations between States but has since evolved , progressively making room for the growing participation of international organizations, groups, persons and issues, such as the environment. In some cases, especially where the European Convention on Human Rights is concerned, individuals are not only beneficiaries of the aforementioned law, but can also lodge a complaint against the State that infringes upon their rights. International Law has a number of sources: treaties, customary law, general principles of law, precedents and doctrine.
International law is founded on the idea that states are sovereign. And yet the very purpose of international law is to restrict the freedom of states to act as they (more specifically, those who govern them) wish. Many of these restrictions arise out of state consent and hence cannot truly be said to undermine state sovereignty—or they do so only in the very narrow circumstances but still in some way they limit the future behavior of the state and subject it to the authority of outside actors.
Multilateral Agreement
A multilateral agreement is defined as a binding agreement between three or more parties concerning the terms of a specific circumstance. Multilateral agreements can occur between three individuals or agencies; however, the most common use of the term refers to multilateral agreements between several countries which can be known as treaty. A multilateral treaty is a written agreement between three or more sovereign states establishing the rights and obligations between the parties. They often result in international conference or gathering of nations done under the auspices of international organizations.
Formulating multilateral treaties
International agreement” is defined as a multilateral accord between sovereign states that is global in scope; this survey does not examine regional arrangements (except when they are built on to conclude global agreements). These international agreements tackle common challenges – though these challenges are not necessarily equally shared – that sovereign states cannot minimize on their own. International agreements range from binding treaties to informal plans for action. While international agreements are concluded by sovereign states, a range of domestic, transnational and international actors are implicated in the success of an agreement. International agreements set out a range of goals: informal agreements can outline action plans for sovereign states or international institutions; they can create or modify international institutions or bodies; and legally-binding agreements can require sovereign states to change their behavior (often through domestic regulation). The broad scope of this activity reinforces the point that international agreements are not one-off events. Agreements underpin international regimes, building on existing norms, practices and institutions. In so doing, they adapt regimes to changed circumstances and new challenges. In order to persist, and to remain relevant, regimes must change and adapt over time, a process that international agreements help to facilitate.
An increasing number of the more recent multilateral treaties are open not only to States but also to international organizations where the organizations have assumed functions in the respective areas.
Formulating multilateral treaty involves several stages. First it is checked by an expert body like international law commission. The next step is acceptance of draft by a political body like General Assembly of United States. Then there is a stage of conference at which the text of the draft treaty is finalized. Even after entering into a force a treaty only bind those states that have given explicit consent to be bound. Withholding of this consent by a single powerful state can seriously undermine the effectiveness of the treaty.
Role of International organization in multilateral treaties
Multilateral treaties and IGOs promote an international rule of law and serve as the building blocks of an international constitution. They are best equipped to solve global problems effectively and efficiently and their processes benefit from a high degree of professionalism and democratic legitimacy
Uniformity of obligations seems to promote equality among states because all states become subject to similar limitations, with no one state existing “above the law.” Most Multilateral enunciate a set of uniform rights and obligations binding on all treaty parties, even though some anomalies of power exploitation do exist, such as the five permanent members of theU.N. Security Council and the Security Council’s right to sanction nuclear countries for violations of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (“NPT”).
Arrangements that are devised within a multilateral framework, as in the areas of international trade or the environment, are perceived as more equal and fair.
IGOs have enabled weaker states to have a greater impact on the initiation of multilateral conferences and the forming of Multilateral. Power differences that easily permit stronger parties to exploit weaker ones in bilateral settings are mitigated in the multilateral context by coalitions of weaker states. The multilateral setting also compels every party to contract with every other party. This limits the ability of stronger powers to design discriminatory regimes that may favor some at the expense of others.
Coordination regimes are established where states’ interests in a particular issue converge around several possible equilibriums and the only function of the regime is to offer a focal point for coordination. Once the focal point is set, no party has an incentive to defect. Coordination efforts that seek to set a focal point for a large number of states are most efficiently bargained for and realized through Multilateral. Multilateral and supplementing IOs are useful in setting and maintaining such focal points through iteration, dissemination of information, monitoring, and assistance toward compliance. This is the case both with regard to the original treaty and to any further elaboration on the treaty’s original provisions.
Conclusion:
A trend to restrain sovereignty International law has developed through increased co-operation among sovereign States in recent years as, for example, in the European Union. International organization is simply impossible without co-operation among States. International co-operation does indeed depend on a degree of mutual concession among the members of an international organization, be it the United Nations Organization, the European Union, the Organization of American States, the African Union, or whatever. In the field of international human rights law, as well as international. As this organization involves several states hence the agreements are mainly multilateral due to this factor international organization are forums of cooperation of sovereign states.
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