INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS AND INSTITUTIONS; THEORIES AND THE ROLE

OF THESE INSTITUTIONS IN INTERNATIONAL LAW

INTRODUCTION:
INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS:
To provide an introduction to the function and study of major international organizations in the
international system, Attention will be devoted to: the idea and history of the international
institution as a form of political order; conceptual frameworks to explain and understand
international organizations, including neorealism, neoliberal institutionalism, constructivism, and
critical approaches; debates focused on security, reconstruction, and development in relation to
the United Nations system; political economy problems centered on the World Bank, the
International Monetary Fund, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development,
and the World Trade Organization; and the management of the global climate crisis involving the
United Nations and other political agencies. International institutions have shaped world politics
in complex and multiple ways. However, they have not had quite the impact on international
relations for which many people hoped. One key objective when studying international
organizations is to evaluate what contributions to international life they make; specifically in
terms of achievements, illusions of internationalism, endemic faults of multilateralism, as well as
boundary disputes between what is classified as ‘public’ and ‘private’. Another key objective is
to not divorce theoretical knowledge from practical knowledge but, rather, to identify how
conceptual approaches can shape the definition of empirical problems and the means by which
such problems may be explained.1

MEANING AND NATURE OF INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION:

In general, international organization stands for membership group that operates across national
borders for specific purposes. The idea of international organization reflects the cooperative
arrangement instituted among states, usually by a basic agreement, to perform some mutually
advantageous functions implemented through periodic meetings and staff activities. The Penguin
Dictionary of International Relations defines international organization as “formal institutional
structures transcending national boundaries which are created by multilateral agreement among
nation states. Their purpose is to foster international cooperation in areas such as security, law,
economic and social matters, and diplomacy.”
However, in the modern sense, an international organization, or more formally
intergovernmental organization (IGO), is an organization, such as the United Nations, European
Community or the WTO, with sovereign states or other IGOs as members. Such organizations
function according to the principles of inter govern mentalism, which means that unanimity is
required. The European Union is however an exception to this rule in some areas. Non-
governmental organizations (NGOs) are private organizations that can also be international in
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scope. Generally and correctly used, however, the term “international organization” is reserved
for intergovernmental organizations only. It is in this sense that the term “international
organization” is used in this lesson .Bennett identifies the characteristics of international
organization that include:
1. A permanent organization to carry on a continuing set of functions.
2. Voluntary membership of eligible parties.
3. A basic instrument stating goals, structure, and methods of operation.
4. A permanent secretariat to carry on continuous administrative, research, and information
functions.
Legally speaking, the nature of an international organization is different from other
organizations in the sense that the former must be established by a treaty providing it with
legal recognition, and usually, in order to safeguard state sovereignty, operates at the level of
consent, recommendation, and cooperation rather than through compulsion or enforcement.
International organizations so established are subjects of international law, capable of
entering into agreements among themselves or with states. Thus international organizations
in a legal sense are distinguished from mere groupings of states, such as theG-8 and the G-
77, neither of which have been founded by treaty, though in non-legal contexts these are
sometimes referred to as international organizations as well. International organizations must
also be distinguished from treaties; while all international organizations are founded on a
treaty, many treaties (e.g., the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)) do not
establish an international organization and rely purely on the parties for their administration.
SCOPE AND FUNCTIONS OF INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS:
International organizations also differ in its scope of functions, membership and membership
criteria. In terms of scope, international organizations perform a varied number of useful
functions within the state system. Their chief function is to provide the means of cooperation
among states in areas in which cooperation provides advantages for all or large number of
nations. They not only work as a platform to take cooperative decisions but also the
administrative tool for translating the decisions into action. They also provide multiple channels
of communication among governments so that areas of accommodation may be explored and
easy access will be available when problem arise. In conflict situations, if states are willing to
explore the possibilities of accommodation and compromise, modern international organizations
have made available a new dimension beyond the previously existing channels of diplomacy and
peaceful settlement. The United Nations, the Specialized Agencies, and regional organizations
provide multiple and continuous contact points through which accommodation can be reached.
We must note that international organizations generally have no independent means of carrying
out coercion. But states, needing to minimize the effects of conflict, find the many and diverse
agencies of international organization useful for that end. The United Nations, for example,
provides several major organs whose functions include there solution of conflict. In other
situations not involving conflict, as in some of the technical work of international organizations,
cooperation is facilitated by the existence of these organizations for reaching agreements that
have mutual advantages for all state concerned. The fundamental idea and reality underlying
modern international organizations involve diplomacy, treaties, conferences, rules of warfare, the
regulation of the use of force, peaceful settlement of disputes, the development of international
law, international trade, international economic cooperation, international social cooperation,
cultural relationship, world travel, world communications, cosmopolitanism, universalism, peace
movements, the formation of leagues and federations, international administration, collective
security, and movements for world government. The role of international organizations in the
contemporary world order depends on their legal recognition by the international community. In
other words, the organization is a subject of international laws and capable of enforcing them by
bringing international claims. It can make treaties; it can coordinate with other organizations to
avoid unsound competition or duplication of efforts. To perform their functions effectively,
international organizations are endowed with certain privilege and immunities. The agents and
servants who perform the functions of international organizations also possess privilege and
immunities. International organizations are also entitled to the grant of privileges and immunities
for their asset, properties and representatives. Privileges for the representatives may include from
personal arrest or detention and from seizer of their personal baggage, and in respect of words
written or spoken and all acts done by them in their capacity as representatives; immunity from
legal process of every kind; inviolability for all papers and documents; the rights to use codes
and to receive papers or correspondence by courier or in sealed bags; freedom from direct taxes;
and immunity from jurisdiction.
KINDS OF INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS:
Modern International organizations may be classified, broadly, into two main categories
intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) and international nongovernmental organizations
(INGOs).
INTERGOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS:
Intergovernmental organizations have national governments as members. Hundreds of IGOs
operate in all parts of the world. Member nations have created each of these organizations to
serve a purpose that those nations find useful. Membership can range from as few as two
member nations to virtually all nations. The UN and its various agencies are IGOs. So are most
of the world’s economic coordinating institutions, such as the World Bank and the International
Monetary Fund (IMF). The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) seeks to
coordinate the production and pricing policies of its 12 member states. The International Atomic
Energy Agency (IAEA) seeks to regulate the flow of nuclear technology to developing nations.
The WTO helps negotiate and monitor agreements among 128 nations to lower trade barriers.
Military alliances, such as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the Southeast
Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO), and political groupings, such as the Arab League, and the
African Union are also IGOs. In general, regional IGOs have experienced more success than
global ones, and those with specific purposes have worked better than those with broad aims.
INTERNATIONAL NONGOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS:
International Nongovernmental organizations are private organizations whose memberships and
activities are international in scope. NGOs do not possess the legal status of national
governments. However, the UN and other international forums recognize many NGOs as
important political institutions. Examples of NGOs include the Roman Catholic Church,
Greenpeace, the International Olympic Committee, and the International Committee of the Red
Cross.2
LIST OF INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS:
1. This is a list of international organizations based in Geneva, Switzerland
2. The United Nations Office at Geneva
3. The European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN)
4. The International Civil Defense Organization (ICDO)
5. The International Labor Organization (ILO)
6. The International Organization for Migration (IOM)
7. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU)
8. The International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO)
9. The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU)
10. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR)
11. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
12. The Internet Governance Forum (IGF)
13. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
14. The Lutheran World Federation (LWF)
15. The World Health Organization (WHO)
16. The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)
17. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO)
18. The World Nature Organization (WNO)
19. The World Student Christian Federation WSCF
20. The World Trade Organization (WTO)
21. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU)
22. The Aga Khan Foundation
23. The Airports Council International
24. The Conference of European Churches (CEC)
25. The International AIDS Society
26. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)
27. The International Electro technical Commission (IEC)
28. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC)
29. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO)
30. The International Road Transport Union (IRU)
31. The International Union against Cancer (UICC)
32. ICVolunteers (ICV)
33. Mandat International (MI)
34. The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM)
35. The Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC)
36. The UN Watch
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 37. The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD)
38. The World Council of Churches (WCC)
39. The World Heart Federation (WHF)
40. The World Economic Forum (WEF)
41. The World Organization of the Scout Movement
42. The World Wide Web Virtual Library
43. The International Association for the Study of Insurance Economics (also known as The
Geneva Association)
44. CARE International [1]
45. Youth with A Mission (YWAM)
46. The international board of directors for Médecins Sans Frontières
47. The United Nations joint programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS)
48. Geneva Call3
INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTIONS:
Although there has never been a clear agreement on what the term development means, much
thinking on the issue has been governed and guided by several international institutions
established in the aftermath of World War Two. Most of these institutions were set up to
promote peace, prosperity and ‘development’. However, their role in international relations over
the last 65 years has proved to be quite controversial.
Two of the most influential international institutions are known as the Bretton Woods
Institutions, namely the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the International Bank for
Reconstruction and Development (more commonly referred to as the World Bank). Both
organizations promote (and often demand) a neo-liberal, free-trade global economic system. In
the wake of World War Two, both institutions were primarily concerned with rebuilding
European countries, however, during the 1960’s as many African countries gained their
independence they applied for membership of the IMF and the World Bank, applying for loans to
construct newly formed countries, thus the institutions began to focus more on the ‘developing
world’.
Both institutions have drawn heavy criticism from members of the development community for
demanding that developing countries make changes to their economic policy to follow a neo-
liberal model. In many cases these policies proved detrimental to developing country economies,
resulting in increased poverty and an un-payable debt burden. They have also been criticized
because of inequality in their voting and decision making system. The USA and European
countries hold the majority of the voting rights and have been accused of protecting their own
interests at the expense of the welfare of other countries. In the case of the IMF, the richest 9%
of the world’s population hold 40% of the voting rights and the poorest 31% have 5% of the
voting rights. Historically the leader of the World Bank is a US appointee and the leader of the
IMF is a European appointee. Although the institutions are very similar in ethos and methods,
the main difference between them is that the IMF is mainly a cooperative institute concerned

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with monitoring the balance of payments and currency exchange rates while the World Bank is
principally a development institution.
The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an international organization that oversees a large
number of agreements defining the "rules of trade" between its member states. Its broad goal is
the reduction or abolition of international trade barriers. Located in Geneva, Switzerland, it has
148 member states. The organization is relatively new, founded in 1995 but has its origins in
1945 when the Bretton Woods Institutes were established, when it was decided that an
International Trade organization should be established to promote free trade and the scrapping of
protectionist measures. These policies have provoked similar criticism as the IMF and the World
Bank have from the development community for promoting damaging neo-liberal policies.
The United Nations (UN), founded in 1945 as a successor organization to the League of Nations
is committed to maintaining international peace and security, developing friendly relations
among nations and promoting social progress, better living standards and human rights. There
are 192 member states of the UN, each of which has a vote and a voice in UN decisions. The
organization is deeply involved in setting the international development agenda. Two the most
popular development documents have emerged from the UN, the Universal Declaration on
Human Rights in 1948 laying out the basic rights that every person is entitled to and providing a
framework for international law and more recently, the eight Millennium Development Goals
aiming to eradicate poverty and inequality by 2015.
Despite the UN’s mandate to maintain global peace and security, the organization has been
heavily criticized for several gross failures. For example during the Rwandan genocide in 1994,
800,000 people were killed while the UN did very little to intervene or prevent the genocide. One
of the possible reasons for this was because it was not the in the strategic interest of the USA of
France, two of the permanent members of the UN Security Council.
LIST OF INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTIONS:
1. United nations
2. International monitory fund
3. European union
4. World trade organization
5. World bank4
FORMULATION AND OBJECTIVES:
One of the conditions for building world democratic governance should be the development of
platforms for citizen dialog on the legal formulation of world governance and the harmonization
of objectives.
This legal formulation could take the form of a Global Constitution. According to Pierre Calame
and Gustavo Marin, "Global Constitution resulting from a process for the institution of a global
community will act as the common reference for establishing the order of rights and duties
applicable to United Nations agencies and to the other multilateral institutions, such as the
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International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the World Trade Organization." As for
formulating objectives, the necessary but insufficient ambition of the United Nations Millennium
Development Goals, which aim to safeguard humankind and the planet, and the huge difficulties
in implementing them, illustrates the inadequacy of institutional initiatives that do not have
popular support for having failed to invite citizens to take part in the elaboration process.
Furthermore, the Global Constitution "must clearly express a limited number of overall
objectives that are to be the basis of global governance and are to guide the common action of
the U.N. agencies and the multilateral institutions, where the specific role of each of these is
subordinated to the pursuit of these common objectives."5
Calame proposes the following objectives:
1. Instituting the conditions for sustainable development
2. Reducing inequalities
3. Establishing lasting peace while respecting diversity.6
OTHER INSTITUTIONS IN DEVELOPMENT:
Non-Governmental Development Organizations (NGDOs) exist for a variety of reasons. They
may be dedicated to providing humanitarian aid, establishing long-term educational projects or
addressing environmental issues while others campaign and lobby government and influential
bodies. They may be secular or religious. They can vary in scale from multinational, multi-
million dollar agencies to small grassroots community groups. Although NGDOs are
independent of national governments, many governments and multilateral institutions recognize
NGDOs as important partners in development. One of the major advantages of NGDOs is that
they can bypass corrupt national governments and ensure that aid reaches the people who need it
most. However, NGDOs, like every other development actor have also been subject to criticism.
The scale of work that NGDOs do is usually tiny in comparison to the scale of the problems.
Many organizations have been criticized for being based on a supposed “do-gooder” philosophy
and often perpetuating a paternalistic and unequal relationship between the developed and the
developing world. Closer to home Dachas, the Irish Association of NGDOs has developed a
Code of Conduct in relation to Images and Messages of the Developing World to address one of
the negative results of many NGDOs; their portrayal of undignified and uninformed images of
the developing world in their advertising and publicity. These images create, at best, a distorted
understanding of the developing world.
Transnational Corporations (TNCs) are corporations or enterprises that work in more than one
country. Today there are over 50,000 such companies. They are a cause of and product of an
increasingly globalized world. 25% of all global trade is controlled by 200 companies and 51%
of the world’s largest economies are TNCs. As such they are highly influential on the global
trade agenda. Many TNCs have been accused of committing human rights abuses and exploiting

5
Jump up to: a b Calame, P. and G. Marin (2005), "Main Points for the Discussion with the United Nations
Secretariat", in "Reforming the U.N. and Redefining Global Governance"
6
Calame, P. (2003), La démocratie en miettes. Pour une révolution de la gouvernance, Ed. Charles Léopold Mayer,
Ed. Descartes et cie. p. 145
poor people in order to maximize profits. Accusations have included using child labor and sweat
shops (where employees work in extremely poor conditions for very long hours and very low
wages, often forced to sleep in their factories) and damaging the environment and the health of
their employees through overuse of pesticides. Many activists choose to boycott TNCs for their
immoral practices; others are pushing to introduce ethical practices into TNCs as they believe
that it is only with the cooperation of TNCs that a just system of global trade can be established. 7

CONCLUSION:
ROLE OF INTERNATIONAL ORGINIZATIONS AND INSTITUTIONS IN INTERNATIONAL LAW:

First, it is important that intensive efforts are made to develop appropriate laws and enforce those
that have already been enacted. I know that this is an area of attention that has been harped upon
repeatedly. I also know that the development and adoption of new legislation is not without its
difficulties and challenges. The process can be long and arduous and requires real commitment
to the cause to get the new law to come into existence. However, this is an area of
implementation that cannot wait or be set aside because of lack of political will. Legislation must
be backed by appropriate and adequate resources. Governments must lead policy makers to
provide, within national budgets, services to women and girls to protect them and their human
rights and freedoms.
To successfully transform the national legal framework for addressing violence against women,
an enabling national environment is required. In this regard:
• Policies that promote and encourage the participation of men and boys in the elimination of
violence against women must be adopted.
• Consideration must be given to rethinking the approach to education in order to transform
educational curricula to eliminate stereotypical presentations and violence.
• Above all, consideration must be given to establishing a mechanism for holding actors
accountable for the implementation of policies and enforcement of laws.
In addition to these, international organizations have also provided to Member States training,
capacity development and a variety of direct services to support victims of violence and to help
to develop national institutions to be better positioned to address this scourge.
By providing a platform for sharing ideas and developing consensus, and through the
establishment of appropriate monitoring mechanisms, international organizations have provided
Member States with opportunities to pay attention to emerging issues, to share ideas on strategies
that work at the national and community levels and on best practices.
REFERENCES:
1. Principles of Public International Law by Ian Brownlie.

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Regan, C. (ed.) (2006) 80:20 Development in an Unequal World
2. International Law by Malcolm N. Shaw.
3. International Law Frameworks (Concepts and Insights) by David J. Bederman.