1. International – regional organisations
Classification, role and function of international organisations

2. Classification of international organisations
How do we classify them
Intergovernmental organisations ( IGOs) – this notion is based on the sovereign state view of international relations
Transnational organisation (TNOs) – here members are not states but also drawn from groups, associations, organisations or individuals from within the state
Three sorts of TNO
Genuine international non-governmental organisation, e.g. International Olympiccommittee, World Council of Churches, Salvation Army
Hybrid INGO, as it has some governmental and some non-governmental representation
The transgovernmental organisation
‘every international organisation which is not created by means of inter-governmental agreements shall be considered as a non-governmental international organisation’ (UN Economic and Social Council)
Hybrid INGO: if established by a treaty or convention between governments, should be IGO, e.g. International Council of Scientific Unions, members: international sc. Unions, scientific academies, natinal research councils, associations of institutions and governments; also IGOs are involving elements of ‘civil society’, often organised by INGOs, may have a formal or semi-formal presence at meetings of IGOs ( environmental groups at Rio UN Conference on Environment) At WTO, Seattle meeting December 1999, parallel activities orchestrated by INGOs were less sympathetic to work of WTO
Transgovernmental organisation: results from relations between governmental actors, not controlled by the central foreign policy organs of their governments; such relationships are quite common if the term ‘governmental actors is widely defined to include anyone enganged in the governmental process of the country ( leg., judiciary, executive), e.g. International Union of Local Authorities ( IULA), International Council for the Exploration of the Seas: a network of co-operation between government marine research labs; Interpol, Inter-parliamentary Union
A 4th category is left out here, Multi-national corporations: definition used to by Yearbook of International Orgs excludes them from the term ‘international organsiation’… they are not ‘formal, continuous structures established by agreement between members from two or more sovereign states they are important international actors

3. IGOs classification
This table disguises the gap between the aspirations and the achievements of each organisation; e.g. has OPEC managed to do-ordinate and unify the oil policies of its member countries.
The trends from 1693 to 1954: growth of economic, food, ag., trade, commodities, industrial and education orgs., and the decline in new legal, juridicial, administrative, cultural, religious, philosophical, ethical, pece and scientific and technological oranisations
Another way is to consider the orientation of activities involved:
Orgs aim at encourageing co-operative relations between members not in a state of conflict
2. Orgs that intend to decrease the level of conflict between members through conflict management
3. Orgs that produce a confrontation between members of differing opinions or between members of the organisation and specific non-members…

4. INGOs: classification

5. Role of International Organisations
An Instrument being used by its members for particular ends
An arena or forum within which actions take place
An independent actor?
Myrdal 1955:4-5 - … in the typical case international organisations are nothing else than instruments for the policies of individual governments…
McCormick and Kihl 1979:502 - … IGOS are used by nations primarily as selective instruments for gaining foreign policy objectives
The consequences for Ios: likely to be fought over by the most powerful members eager to utilize it…. In early years, US used UN as an instrumetns of its foreign policy… unamiityor… veto…
Arena : a meeting place for members to come together, argue, discuss, co-operate…Conor Cruise O’Brien: UN’s Council Chambers… are stages set for a continuous dramatisation of world history; e.g. Third World Countries used UN to air views on New International Economic Order in 70s
Actor: some Ios can act on the world scene without being significantly affected by outside forces but very few; rather, it means autonomous in that the organisations’s responses are not predicated, even from the most thorough knowledge of the environment and that it possesses a stable and coherent decision-making machinery within its boundaries
Actor capacity: depends on the resolutions.. Orders coming from its organs compeling some or all member governmetns to act differently from the way in which they would otherwise act… e.g. UN should do something…
INGOs: have a strong corporate identity… International Committee of Red Cross… Amnesty…more effective than individual governments…
International Court of Justice and ECJ: decisions are taken independently, cases adjudged by standards of international law,; the peacekeeping activities of UN: peforms on world stage with certain degree of independence;

6. An International Organisation: intergovernmental co-operation
We will examine the Council of Europe today as an example of an international organisation, where its role as instrument , arena and actor(?) can be explored, but where co-operation between these states is on a strictly intergovernmental basis. National governments have not been involved in transferring authority to this organisation

7. International organisations: Europe:post-war 1945 -
Military
Political
Economic

8. International organisations: Europe:post-war
Military:
The Cold War created an artificial divide in Europe; out of this NATO ( 1949) and Warsaw Pact faced each other across the Iron Curtain for 40 years; it did mean ‘power politics’ was put in cold storage, balance of power politics was no longer the method of inter-state co-operation ; furthermore the nuclear threat changed the military landscape completely

9. International organisations: Europe:post-war
Political/Economic
For the first time Western European states could focus on creating some kind of United States of Europe ( first attempt, Council of Europe)
Some wanted to pursue ‘intergovernmental’ type of co-operation (UK) - ended up establishing EFTA
Others wanted to take co-operation between states a step further, to actually transfer some authority to the organisation which could rise above the seemingly ‘selfish’ national-interest of the sovereign state; thus the Six set up ECSC, Treaty of Paris, 1951; this ultimately the blueprint for Treaty of Rome, 1957 (EEC, Euratom); this became characterised as ‘supranational’ co-operation

10. Council of Europe: Palais de l’Europe http://www. coe

11. The Council of Europe - basics
established in 1949
10 original members, +
The council consists of
an executive body,
the committee of ministers (the foreign ministers of the member states), and
the consultative assembly (individuals selected by the national parliaments of the member states).
The committee of ministers and the consultative assembly meet annually in joint session at the headquarters of the Council in Strasbourg, France
to achieve a greater unity among the member nations on the basis of their common traditions of political liberty, rather than their geographic location.
Belgium, Denmark, France, Great Britain, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden
24 other countries have been admitted to full membership in the council: Turkey (1949), Greece (1949, withdrew ), Iceland (1950), Germany (1951), Austria (1956), Cyprus (1961), Switzerland (1963), Malta (1965), Portugal (1976), Spain (1977), Liechtenstein (1978), San Marino (1988), Finland (1989), Hungary (1990), Poland (1991), Bulgaria (1992), Estonia, Lithuania, Slovenia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Romania (1993), Andorra (1994), and Latvia (1995).
Guest status: encourage new regimes to respect the rule of law so that they can beome members eventually, and to protect the diplomatic and moral authority of the Council by refusing membership to countries that have yet to demonstrate their democratic intent.
So criteria for membershipL states must accept the principles of the rule of law and of the enjooyment by all persons within their jurisdiction of human rights and fundamental freedoms
Consultative assembly:With delegations from over 40 national parliaments, it is the most widely-based European assembly; 306 members, Each country has between 2 and 18 representatives depending on the size of its population ( Ireland 4, Germany/France:18); meets quarterly for a week in plenary session in the Chamber of the Palais de l'Europe in Strasbourg. Sittings are public. It also holds a spring meeting in one of the member states; work is prepared by specialist committees; initiated many international treaties, known as European conventions, and other legal instruments, forming the basis of a truly European system of legislation. The best known of these is the European Convention on Human Rights, opened for signature in 1950; Assembly is consulted by the Committee of Ministers on all draft conventions before they are adopted
SeretaryGeneral:Council of Europe Secretary General, Walter Schwimmer General Schwimmer, Walter Born 16 June 1942 in Vienna, Austria Married to Martina Pucher-Schwimmer, two sons Education University of Vienna Law Faculty, doctorate in law, 1964 Post-graduate studies in social and labour law fall of communist regimes, the Council of Europe gained fresh political impetus at the highest level through summit meetings of heads of state and government. Two summits have been held to date. In Vienna in 1993, the political leaders of the 32 states which were members of the Organisation at the time responded to the challenge by determining a course of action for enlargement. In Strasbourg in 1997, with 40 member states, political leaders adopted a new Plan of Action based on four broad themes: democracy and human rights, social cohesion, security of citizens and education for democracy and cultural diversity. This is the blueprint for the Council's programme of work in the new millennium.

12. Map and members of Council of Europe
44 MEMBER STATES 
 Albania ( ) Andorra ( ) Armenia ( ) Austria ( ) Azerbaijan  ( ) Belgium ( ) Bosnia & Herzegovina ( ) Bulgaria ( ) Croatia ( ) Cyprus ( ) Czech Republic ( ) Denmark ( ) Estonia ( ) Finland ( ) France ( ) Georgia ( ) Germany ( ) Greece ( ) Hungary ( ) Iceland ( ) Ireland ( ) Italy ( ) Latvia ( )Liechtenstein ( ) Lithuania ( ) Luxembourg ( ) Malta ( ) Moldova ( ) Netherlands ( ) Norway ( ) Poland ( ) Portugal ( ) Romania ( ) Russian Federation ( ) San Marino ( ) Slovakia ( ) Slovenia ( ) Spain ( ) Sweden ( ) Switzerland ( ) the "former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia" ( ) Turkey ( ) Ukraine ( ) United Kingdom ( ) 
 The Special Guests to the
Parliamentary Assembly Federal Republic of Yugoslavia ( ) The Observers to the Committee of Ministers Canada ( ) - Holy See ( ) - Japan ( ) - Mexico ( ) - United States of America ( ) The Observers to the Parliamentary Assembly Canada ( ) - Israel ( ) - Mexico ( )

13. Council of Europe: powers
The powers of the Council of Europe are purely advisory
. The Council established
a Commission in 1950 and
a Court (of Human Rights)in 1959
to enforce the rights outlined in the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (1950). These include the rights to a fair wage, to strike, and to social security, including social and medical assistance if it is needed.
Each member retains full national sovereignty, and resolutions adopted by the consultative assembly must have majority approval of the committee of ministers before being referred to the national legislatures of the member states.
Activities:
Among the most significant treaties in this area are the European Convention on Human Rights, (the most important convention as it codifies individual rights and provides a means of redress for individual citizens) the European Social Charter, the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities
The Commission: investigates complaints about violations of rights; the convention does not have the sanctions of a national court or the Eus ECJ… however a state’s signature of the convention creates an opening for judges in national courts to cite it as a reason for upholding individual claims against infringements of rights …
It has sponsored conventions and agreements dealing with everything from human rights and data protecion to measures to reduce hooliganism at European Cup football matches.
An example of its work: The Swedish Helsinki Committee for Human Rights, SHC organised a seminar for Young Political Leaders from Yugoslavia (Serbia, including Kosovo and Vojvojdina, and Montenegro), Macedonia and Albania in December The seminar, which took place in Budapest, was held under the Democratic Leadership Programme of the Council of Europe.
Participants were young political leaders, with a commitment to building and maintaining democracy in Yugoslavia, Macedonia and Albania. Participants were selected according to their qualifications but also to their commitment to human rights and democracy and their dedication to work for a peaceful and tolerant multi-ethnic society

14. Function of international organisations
Articulation and aggregation of interests
Norms
Recruitment
Socialization
Rule making
Rule application
Rule adjudication
Information
Operations
What functions do Ios perform; how do Ios affect this functioning of the international political system
Articulation..: voice demands and aggregate, bring together the interests of relevant paties; eg OPEC: like an oil exporters’ trade union IGOs tend to be stages for interest articulation and aggregation with the various contending sections forming into blocs/groups
Norms:establishing norms in international relations now a complex process, IGOs and INGOs contribute to this; UN Charter: provides a set of values for the international system we the people reaffirmed their faith in fundamental human rights, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations of large and small and determined to promote social progress and better standards of life …
In the field of international security, normative activities of international organisations can be divided into 5 categoies: refining principles against the use of force; deligitimize Western colonialism, pronounce on specific situations, urge disarmament and arms control; exhort states to arm
EU: democracy, market economy and acquis
Recruitment: participants in IGOs are states so an incentive for non self-governing territories to achieve their independence; INGOs: these have mobilized the fstest growing and sidest based group of participants in the current international political ssytem; new actors now brought into the old 19th century state-centred system
Socialization:loyalty to the system: process works at 2 levels (a) agents of soc. May work across frontiers, affecting individuals and groups in a number of countries… MNCs take a lead here ‘ the most powerful agent for the internationalization of human society.. Global culture with Microsoft/McDonalds.. For IGOs EU has the most sophisticated agents of socializationthee is a common feeling among the 6…
(b) Governments can become socialized to act in a certain way acceptable to the rest fo the international community… stress is to establish dependable and enduring patterns of behaviour
Rule…making: traditional confederal principles upon which based:
rule are made by unanimous consensus of members
Members have the practical option of leaving an organisation and ending their asent to the existing rules
Even within the bounds of membership, a state can assert the right to interpret unilaterally the rules to which it hs consented
The executive-bureaucratic structure of the organisation has little or no power to formulate and implement rules
Delegates to the organisations rule-making bodies are instructed by their governments and do not act as independent representatives
The io has no direct relationship with private citizens of member states
adjudicaiton: International Criminal Court: 160 states – est July 1998, can presecute those from a statenot party to the agreement
Operations: banking , providing aid, helping refugees

15. Council of Europe: Articulation and aggregation of interests
How does this IGO perform the task of outlining and bringing together the interests of its members:
In the CoE case it acts as a forum where interests can be articulated ( spoken about);
The CoE does not have a tightly knit membership so it is difficult to act as an instrument of interest articulation/aggregation – unlike OPEC which was more like an oil exporters’ trade union in the mid 70s, or the EU which speaks as one in trade negotiations at WTO talks, for example

16. Council of Europe: Norms
What norms or values does the CoE support?
The rule of law, pluralist democracy…
In the field of Human Rights, a single Court of Human Rights which is directly accessible to the individual and its jurisdiction is compulsory for all contracting parties

17. Council of Europe: Recruitment
Has the CoE been active in recruiting participants to the international political system
Arguably as only sovereign states can be members it has been an incentive to places like Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina etc to achieve their independence and thus join such IGOs as the Council of Europe in order to represent their own interests

18. Council of Europe:Socialization
Does the CoE instill loyalty and a sense of ‘we-feeling’?
As awareness of this organisation is low it has not managed to create such a positive profile
One cannot ignore however its role in promoting ‘Europe’, introducing the flag etc
Have governments become ‘socialized’ to act in a certain way that is acceptable to the rest of the international community
undoubtedly! It encourages members to act in a cooperative way so as not to undermine the norms they share with other members (e.g. new Balkan states)

19. Council of Europe: Rule Making
The CoE operates on an intergovernmental basis – decisions have to be agreed unanimously; its mode of operation is by means of conventions and standing conferences
The organisation does provide a focus for the setting of rules, particularly in the Human Rights area and private citizens have recourse to the Court of Human Rights.
Member states adopt an ‘a la carte’ approach to intergovernmental co-operation: e.g. the Convention on Human Rights is one of the few Conventions to have been signed and ratified by all Council of Europe member states
The policy areas where the Council is involved includes:
human rights and legal matters
Social policy and public health
Mass media
Education and culture
Conservation and the environment
Youth affairs
Many of the conventions deal with low-key issues to facilitate public policy-making and social exchange in Western Europe; thus conventions on the placement of au pair workers, status of migrant workers, the repatriation of corpses etc.
Specialized conferences: these meet regularly to promote intergovernmental co-operation in various field; e.g. The European Conference of Local Authorities, dates from 1955 and it brings elected representative of local government in a European forum.

20. Council of Europe: Rule application
This is left to the states - there is no central authority to undertake this task
Protecting human rights, pluralist democracy and the rule of law…

21. Council of Europe: Rule Adjudication
Court of Human Rights
It is difficult as the process of rule adjudication doesn’t carry the compulsory nature of that of the nation-state

22. Council of Europe:Information
CoE centrally involved in promoting ‘democracy, human rights and dealing with other ills facing society by organising conferences, training courses for judges…
Its publications, more formal adoption of Conventions, Charters, are often the back drop for changes in legislation ( either at national level or even in the European Union

23. Overview of Council of Europe
The Council of Europe has a weak institutional base
It has no independent law-making power
Once the EU is involved in an area/issue ( education, culture, justice) it quickly becomes the main arena for discussion of such matters; the EU has a more effective decision-making capacity and institutional structure which overshadows the non-binding commitments that characterize intergovernmental co-operation in the Council of Europe.
While there has been increased co-operation between the EU and the Council of Europe, the latter remains the organisation most if not all of the CEE states wish to join.

24. Overview of Council of Europe
It carved a niche for itself in the establishment of a Europe wide order after 1989 and it has acted as a bridge between East and West in the last decade
For the Central and east European states full membership provided a stamp of approval for the reform processes underway in their countries as the CoE has always prided itself on being the protector of human rights and democratic freedoms

25. Some views on Council of Europe
“an organisation which safeguards the rights of and represents some 765 million people. The binding obligations arising from membership mean a remit that runs from Novosibirsk in Siberia in the east, to Reykjavik in the west, and south from the Azores to Istanbul”
Europe's oldest inter-governmental forum, …now sets human rights standards for its 41 member states and the five or six aspiring members on its periphery, while its court and the fundamental text of the council, the European Convention on Human Rights, have been the inspiration and source of law for later imitators such as the Inter-American Court, the African Charter on Human and People's rights, and ultimately the newly agreed international war crimes court

26. Council of Europe v European Union
CoE: a weak institutional structure
EU: its structures and powers of EU institutions are more sophisticated and there is a greater intensity in decision-making
CoE: its actions ( conventions etc) are non-binding
EU: its legal order is one of its primary supranational features – a new and independent legal order that directly constrains the sovereignty of the member states
R. Dahrendorf, ‘A Third Europe, Monnet Lectue, Florence, EUI 1979, P. 11
‘the Council of Europe ‘settled down to a static second-ratedness in limited areas of concern’
where does the council fit in the complex architecture of Europe's multiple multinational organisations? The council, the EU, NATO, the Organisation of Security and Co-operation in Europe. . . each has a different but complementary role. "Complementarity" is now the buzzword of European diplomatic theory

27. CoE: The European Flag
25 October 1955 the Parliamentary Assembly made the unanimous decision to adopt a circle of gold stars on a blue background as an emblem. On 8 December 1955 the Committee of Ministers adopted this as the European flag.
1983: flag adopted by European Parliament as the flag to represent the EC/EU
European Parliament which took the initiative for a flag to be adopted for the European Community. In 1979 a draft. resolution was presented, shortly after the first European elections held by universal suffrage. In a resolution adopted in April 1983 the Parliament decreed that the Community's flag should be that adopted by the Council of Europe in The European Council, meeting at Fontainebleau in June 1984, stressed the importance of promoting the European image and identity in the eyes of its citizens and the world. Then

28. Final Question??
Where does the council fit in the complex architecture of Europe's multiple multinational organisations? EU
NATO
OSCE