МИВИВИИИЙНИЙМ
Гулиев А.А.
место неправительственных организаций в международном праве и оон
Одной из часто обсуждаемых тем в международной политике является нарастающая роль неправительственных организаций в международных организациях, в частности ООН, и их деятельность в определении международной политики. Такая ситуация неизбежно требует рассмотрения основных норм международного права и уставов международных организаций, определяющих статус НПО. Целями данной статьи являются изучение основных принципов ООН (и нескольких других конвенций), определяющих деятельность НПО, а также применение теории корпоратизма, функционализма и плюрализма для выявления вклада неправительственных организаций в деятельность ООН. Исследования показали, что утверждение принципа защиты человеческих прав международным сообществом привело к признанию ценности НПО. Кроме того, применение теории позволило установить, что, являясь субъектом международного права, неправительственные организации могут представлять интересы всех слоев общества и помочь ООН стать более демократичной. Однако это не означает отсутствие препятствий перед НПО в их отношениях с международными организациями. Нехватка важных ресурсов для НПО и недоверие политиков часто мешают углублению отношений между неправительственными организациями и ООН.
Ключевые слова: консультативный статус, координация стратегии, процесс принятия решений, членство, экономическое благосостояние, экологическая деградация, обмен информацией, замораживание членства, глобальные сети политики, неправительственные организации.
Guliyev A.A.
ngos in the international law and the united nations
The breakdown of the Soviet Union saw ever increasing activity of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the international arena. Acting through intergovernmental organizations, NGOs played vital role in setting world politics and developing new international norms. Moreover, civil society institutions were believed to shape democratic character of international organizations, make them more responsive to global challenges and capable of influencing world politics through acting in blocks. Such a global involvement of NGOs inevitably draws attention, among others, to the need of defining both legal conditions of NGOs according to international law and their role in international organizations, such as the United Nations, the European Union and Council of Europe.
Driving its bases from the arguments, the current paper aims firstly at highlighting international norms specified in the UN Charter and like documents concerning NGO activities, and secondly exploration of NGO participation at the United Nations, by using theories of corporatism, functionalism and pluralism to better understand between NGOs and international organizations. The overall goal of the paper is to establish a theoretical link between the international law and NGO participation at the United Nations.
Keywords: consultative status, co-ordination of strategy, decision-making process,membership,economic well-being, environmental degradation, exchange of information, freezing membership, global policy networks, governance networks, intergovernmental process, international instrument, non-governmental organizations.
Гулиев А.А.
History can be said to have seen tendency of NGOs to turn gradually into subjects of the international law with major wars being responsible. For instance, in response to conflicts and subsequent humanitarian crises of the nineteenth and mostly twentieth centuries, American Medical Association was founded in 1847, and many years later Save the Children and Oxfam were established in 1919 and 1942, respectively. Organizations established in the subsequence to wars served to help affected persons only in some continents. However, it was the World War II (among others) that resulted in such a humanitarian crisis that no state was in position to deal with unilaterally, and consequently lead world public to recognize role of NGOs in maintaining international peace and security. One sign of this was that non-governmental organizations were directly or indirectly mentioned in the charters of international organizations. For instance, Article 71 of the UN Charter states that "The Economic and Social Council may make suitable arrangements for consultation with non-governmental organizations,
which are concerned with matters within its competence. Such arrangements may be made with international organizations and, where appropriate, with national organizations after consultation with the Member of the United Nations concerned".1 But this is not to say that ECOSOC is the only UN agency to deal with NGOs as many other organs of the United Nations, such as UNESCO, UNDP and UNHCR in addition to ECOSOC hold regular meetings with NGOs and consider their recommendations on social and public aspects of international peace and security.2 As one of the five main organs of the United Nations and responsible for dealing with economic and social affairs globally, ECOSOC makes its own contribution to providing international peace and security. Article 71 allows ECOSOC to benefit from NGO input and regular consultation thereby demonstrating the willingness to engage non-governmental
1 UN Charter, Paragraph 10, Article 71.
2 UN - Department of Economic and Social Affairs - NGO Section available at http://esa.un.org/coordination/ngo/new/index.asp?page=faqs September 23, 2009.
organizations in providing economic and social well-being important for international peace and security.
ECOSOC have characterized contemporary nongovernmental organizations as being:
- established by private individuals
- independent from the state
- not for private/special profit
- interested basically in public affairs
- based on and promoting voluntarism
- legitimate, not confronting laws.3
ECOSOC grants a consultative status to NGOs whose activities are relevant to that of ECOSOC, which have democratic decision-making mechanisms, have official registration and receive their contributions from sources other than gov-ernments.4 Actually, the kind of consultative status was initially introduced in the United Nations to implement article 71 of the Charter. Such similar arrangements were later adopted by a number of organizations, UN Specialized Agencies and Organization of American States.5
But with what opportunities does the consultative status at ECOSOC promise for NGOs? Though NGO role in the intergovernmental process is recognized and they hold a corresponding legal status, they have problems of access and accreditation procedure, and usually can participate only in specific organs and in specific fields of activity. The consultative status model has proved to be effective in that participation of NGOs in meetings and in debates was influential in setting agendas shaping the policy approach embracing issues like human rights and environmental degradation. Despite the fact that NGOs with consultative status may not take part in decision-making process, they can attend meetings, make statements and propose agenda. Consequently, it is more appropriate to talk of them as observers rather than participators. As to the problem of "accreditation procedure", it is a kind of body filled by representative of member states who defines pre-admission conditions for NGOs.6 Information provided by epistemic communities was considered to be utmost reliable by the UN System and many other international organizations as they reflected expert knowledge on the area and fresh data.7 In contrast, some other scholars argued ECOSOC is somehow discriminative as "its consultative status does not involve all transnational NGOs and its statute does not give NGOs a legitimate place in international diplomacy".8
It should be noted that along with the UN Charter, many other international conventions have recognized importance of NGOs and their indispensable role in civil society development and in upholding democratic principles. These are the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, African Charter of Human Rights, American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Men and American Convention on Human Rights, and the European Convention
3 Official website of ECOSOC available at http://esango.un.org/paperless/Web? page=static&content=committee
4 Supra nota - 2
5 Resolution (93) 38 and CP/RES 759 (1217/99), Guidelines for the Participation of Civil Society Organizations in OAS Activities, 15 December, 1999.
6 Aston, John D. The United Nations Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations: Guarding the Entrance of a Politically Divided House, 12 EJIL, 2001. p. 943.
7 UN System and Civil Society - An Inventory and an Analysis of Practices, Background Paper for the Secretary General's Panel of Eminent Persons on UN Relations with Civil Society available at http://www.un-ngls.org/Unreform.htm (accessed 12 October, 2008).
8 Willetts, Peter. "Transnational Actors and International Organizations" in The
Globalization of World Politics - edi. by Baylis and Smith. Oxford University
Press. 2001
on Human Rights and Fundamental Rights.
Articles 19-20 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights signed in 1948 stressed on "the right of each individual for speech" and "the right for assembly and association".9 After being signed by Member-States in 1948, the instrument has been recognized as a normative document in the international law and thereby endorsed role of non-governmental organizations in building civil society.
Other International Instruments
In addition to the UN Charter, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) defines basic human rights which burdens not only state but also civil society institutions with high responsibility to preserve these rights. Articles 19, 21 and 22 are devoted to the overall protection of human rights and freedoms. The First Additional Protocol to the International C
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