CYIL 2014

MARTIN FAIX CYIL 5 ȍ2014Ȏ which has been continuously strengthened by transferring more and more functions to international organisations, but also by changing the way they work. Wonderful examples are integration organisations, such as the ECOWAS, the African Union or the European Union. For example, the EU integration process brought not only a broadening of the EU’s competences but also a shift in decision-making in more and more areas from unanimity to majority vote. The rising number of international organisations, the significant widening of their functions, a corresponding increase of their competences and scope of conduct have indisputably contributed to their growing impact on all members of the international community. International organisations have not only become more autonomous and been vested with broader competences, but their evolution has led to an increased ability to directly impact individuals and their legal position, which has led again inevitably to the possibility of human rights breaches resulting from the conduct of international organisations. This concerns not only integration organisations such as the EU, the law of which enjoys direct applicability in EU Member States and thus creates rights and duties for their nationals without the need for a transposition to national law, or the United Nations and the individual sanctions of the Security Council, but also organisations conducting security operations (NATO, EU, AU, ECOWAS, etc.) or financial institutions (World Bank, WTO, etc.). For example the World Bank included human rights norms 30 in many of its operational policies and procedures. Moreover, in 1993 the Executive Directors of the World Bank decided to create an Inspection Panel, 31 which allows individuals, but also associations and nongovernmental organisations, to bring complaints related to Bank projects and to the Bank’s failure to follow its own rules, thus enabling individuals and communities to hold the World Bank accountable as an international organisation for violations of its internal rules. 32 Another aspect to be mentioned here is that international organisations have become important actors in the area of human rights. The changing quality and role of international organisations, but also the general trend of human rights mainstreaming into all aspects of the life of the international community, have made human rights an aspect at the top of the agenda in many international organisations. It can be argued that the role of international organisations in promoting respect for human rights (and the rule of law) has been both impressive and without precedent. In order not to focus only on the example of the United Nations as a world-wide international organisation with great significance, we may mention the importance of the so-called Copenhagen criteria , which were the conditions defined by the EU’s European Council during its meeting in Copenhagen in 1993 concerning the issue of the admission of Central and Eastern European Countries to the European Union. 30 Such as indigenous rights, participatory and resettlement rights. 31 See www.worldbank.org/inspectionpanel ( last accessed 25. June 2014). 32 RYNGAERT, Cedric. The Humanization of International Law. Reflections on Theodor Meron’s Hague Lecture. Human Rights and International Legal Discourse . 2007, vol. 1, pp. 425-441, at p. 431.

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