International organizations: functions, types, essence and tasks

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:41

The functions of international organizations are quite broad. In general, such structures are non-standard associations that solve the global problems of mankind through the cooperation of all or most countries of the world. They are aimed at improving the life of earthlings in general, reducing the number of poor people, and protecting nature from the impact of negative human actions.

Short description

They are characterized by the following features:

The nature of the activities are permanent or regular.
Multilateral negotiations and discussion of issues in priority.
Required constituent document.
Decisions are advisory.
Consensus is reached through debate or voting.

Operating environment

Suchstructures are both subjects and objects of international relations. They are also able to regulate these relations at the legislative level. To develop, such organizations must solve the following tasks:

Global problems occurring in the international financial market.
Convince all participants that a decision is important for the whole world, and try to reach a consensus on the issue under discussion.
Deal with the dependence of negotiators and government officials on outside pressure.
Provide maximum information support for all interested structures.

As you know, the tasks of international organizations can cover any area of activity. They are necessary for the normal existence and development of companies that are active in the international market.

Functions

The functions of international organizations are different, but the main one is political stability and is expressed:

In identifying the interests of Member States.
To achieve a single solution to common problems.
In determining the means of accomplishing such joint tasks.

The first and main factor that determines how stable an organization is is the permanence of activity. At first there were one-time congresses and conferences that met to solve certain problems, the range of which expanded. Further meetings were held, which determined what to do next. After that, organizationsbegan to meet more regularly, and these meetings have become permanent.

Participation of the same states in such organizations can be called the second factor of stability. Initially, these were separate individuals and legal entities from different countries, and then different associations began to join, and then the states themselves.

Structure of international organizations

Usually this is a specially created structure that is created by certain states and has goals agreed by the participants. The following criteria are known that determine belonging to international organizations:

Ethnic parties unite.
Standing goals are agreed.
There must be an international founding document.
Provides legal equality of participants.
Compliance of goals with international law.

Typing

The most important criterion for typing is the membership of states in a particular structure. Organizations are divided into interstate and non-state.

The first include the union of countries that entered the structure on the basis of an international agreement. They received international legal personality.

In the second structures, participants have common political, economic, professional, economic and social interests.

However, it is worth noting that structures such as Interpol and the International Organizationlabor cannot be called interstate or non-state structures. They are classified as a mixed type.

They are also typed by geographic coverage. Traditionally, there are three of them:

Global - world class.
Regional - the majority of representatives of one or another macro-region (continent or part of the world) take part.
Sub-regional - a small number of representatives from one or two regions (Commonwe alth of Independent States (CIS), North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), Organization for Democracy and Economic Development (GUAM), Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)).

According to the nature of the authority, there are:

International - refer to formations of the confederate type. The states that are part of such a confederation fully retain their independence. Countries create special common confederal bodies in order to coordinate actions and achieve their goals faster.
Supranational are organizations of a federal type. The states that make up the federation have their own constitutions, legislative, executive and judicial bodies.

Structures are also divided into temporary and permanent. Temporary are those that have not actually held a single event in 10 years. The closing date of such activities is the closing date of the last meeting.

Right

The system of international organizations includes a number of legal norms. The member states of such a structure must comply with everything that is described in the jointly drafted code. If individual organizations have not complied with certain rules of law, then sanctions are imposed on them (that is, any restrictions on activities for a certain period of time, up to expulsion from the structure).

All members of international organizations are equal subjects of public law.

Such structures have the right to jointly develop a set of legal principles and norms that allow a normal existence in today's not very simple world.

Sources of law:

Statutes or agreements.
Arrangements regarding regulations.
Acts establishing the status of participants.
Arrangements with governments of countries within organizations.

Legal norms are divided into 3 groups:

Own law - the rules that regulate the activities and define the functions of international organizations.
Rules that allow some of the participants to participate in the international rule-making process.
External law - norms fixing the place of an international organization in the structure of the system of international relations.

What decisions can be made

The following solutions can be created in such a structure:

Decrees - they are accepted by all states, except for those that abstained, or those that cannot accept thisruling because of its constitution.
Advisory recommendations.
Resolutions.

Let's take a look at the EU as an example:

Directives - oblige countries to fully comply with them in each state of the participating country.
Proposals can and must be made by all members of the organization.
Decisions are made only by those countries that are interested in their implementation.
Recommendations that have no legal effect.

To make a decision, the following points must be met:

Posting a question.
Review and develop a solution.
Deciding by voting.

International organizations are such structures that are aimed at solving sub-regional, regional and global problems of mankind. Recently, the following has been noticed: the more participating countries talk about global problems and try to somehow solve them, the world gets worse and worse, despite the fact that different methods are used to solve them.

Economic associations

The functions of international organizations that deal with economic issues are as follows:

Regulatory - making decisions that determine the rules for the behavior of states, as well as goals that need to be realized in the future.
Control - control is carried out to ensure that the behavior of states is consistent with international law.
Operational - providing states with any kind of assistance.

Views

The subjects of international organizations include:

Interstate universal organizations.
World associations of regional and interregional level.
Organizations that operate in certain segments of the global market.

Classify them into:

Monetary and financial.
Credit.
Trade and economic.
Industry.

Main international organizations

Among the main global associations, it is worth highlighting the activities of such important structures for society:

APEC - is engaged in ensuring an open trade regime in the Pacific region.
Andean Council – members of the community are deepening economic and political integration between countries, where the main goal is to develop a common economic policy in the Latin American region.
The Arctic Council is dedicated to protecting the unique nature in the north and the Arctic Circle.
The G8 is a collection of the eight most industrialized countries in the world.
The EU is a unique economic and political structure, consisting of 28 states. The European Union is not a subject of international legal relations, but has the right to participate in them.
NATO - also includes 28 independent states. This is a military-political union. If suddenly one NATO country was attacked, then all allies should cooperate their forces and help in resolving the military conflict.
The UN is the most important structure in the world, in whichincludes mail from all states of the globe. She is obliged to deal with issues of establishing peace on the entire planet.
WTO - allows you to regulate trade relations around the world. At the moment, it includes more than 170 independent states.
UNESCO - engaged in science, education and culture.
OPEC - International Union of Petroleum Exporters.
WHO is a world he alth organization that develops and implements uniform standards of medical care, and also helps to implement government he alth programs.

The creation of world-class international organizations was mainly carried out after the Second World War. There are hundreds of international organizations around the world, but we have listed only the main ones.

Why do we need such structures?

The fact is that humanity has come to the point that states can no longer cope alone with pressing problems. That is why the world community decided that it is necessary to create special interstate associations, thanks to the joint efforts of which it will be possible to overcome the problems that have arisen.

From this, the goals of international organizations emerge, which are universal in nature and have such distinctive features:

Must be more than three states.
All international organizations must respect the sovereignty of each member state.
They have their own charter and governing bodies.
Each of them has its own specialization.

So, we have considered functions, types, essence andthe tasks of most of the well-known structures of the world scale, functioning today.