c. International Organizations and their Officers

What are international organizations?

International organizations are created by sovereign States and whose functioning are regulated by international law, not the law of any given country. They have functional personality which is limited to what is necessary to carry out their functions as found in the instruments of the organization.

This is different from an international NGO. NGOs are a diverse group of organizations that defy generalization, ranging from small informal groups to large formal agencies. NGOs play different roles and take different shapes within and across different societies. As a result, ‘‘NGO’’ as an analytical category remains complex and unclear. For example, despite the fact that NGOs are neither run by government, nor driven by the profit motive, there are nevertheless some NGOs that receive high levels of government funding, and others that seek to generate profits to plough back into their work. Boundaries are unclear, and as one might expect from a classification that emphasizes what they are not rather than what they are, NGOs therefore turn out to be quite difficult to pin down analytically

What is its personality?

General Rule - The status and powers of an international organization is determined by agreement and not by general or customary international law. They are considered subjects of international law “if their legal personality is established by their constituent instrument.”

Further, its constituent rights and duties, or capacities and immunities, include those expressly conferred by its constituent instrument and those implied as necessary to carry out its functions. Thus, legal personality in this context is a relative concept. (Reparations for Injuries Advisory Opinion, ICJ, April 11, 1949)

Exception – United Nations. It has objective international personality. Its personality is binding on the whole international community, including States who are not UN members. (Reparations for Injuries Advisory Opinion, ICJ, April 11, 1949).

What are the immunities of international organizations and its officers?

One of the basic immunities of an international organization is immunity from local jurisdiction, i.e., it is immune from the legal writs and processes issued by the tribunals of the country where it is found. The obvious reason for this is that the subjection of such an organization to the authority of the local courts would afford a convenient medium thru which the host government may interfere in their operations or even influence or control its policies and decisions of the organization; besides, such subjection to local jurisdiction would impair the capacity of such body to discharge its responsibilities impartially on behalf of its member-states. (Southeast Asian Fisheries v. NLRC, G.R. No. 86773, February 14, 1992).

There are basically three propositions underlying the grant of international immunities to international organizations. These principles, contained in the ILO Memorandum are stated thus:

• International institutions should have a status which protects them against control or interference by any one government in the performance of functions for the effective discharge of which they are responsible to democratically constituted international bodies in which all the nations concerned are represented;
• No country should derive any national financial advantage by levying fiscal charges on common international funds; and
• The international organization should, as a collectivity of States members, be accorded the facilities for the conduct of its official business customarily extended to each other by its individual member States. (International Catholic Immigration Commission v. Calleja, G.R. No. 85750, September 28, 1990)