CYIL 2014

MARTIN FAIX CYIL 5 ȍ2014Ȏ the EU, 57 is party to any human rights treaty. Moreover, most such conventions are not open to the participation of international organisations. Therefore international custom, general principles of international law and unilateral acts will be explored as possible sources of human rights obligations. 58 3.1 International treaties To address the issue of human rights obligations stemming from international agreements appears, prima facie , to be a simple undertaking. Compared to international custom (and general principles) it can be easily established whether such obligations exist, how they came into existence. Even the identification of their scope of application appears to be easier, and the control of their implementation is often vested into hands of (sometimes highly) effective mechanisms. But as usual things are not as easy as they appear at first sight. It can be argued that where international organisations carry out functions which touch upon human rights in any way, then it is certainly desirable to bind international organisations contractually, generally because of the advantages which treaties, compared to other sources of international law, offer and specifically because treaties are simply the dominant source of international human rights law. The practical problem that occurs is that a vast majority of multilateral treaties in this area, including the major ones, are only open for accession and ratification by States. However, according to Poretto / Vité, 59 this is too formalistic an approach, which should not take precedence over the interest of adhering international organisations to such treaties. However, such considerations have to be refused (regardless of the fact that, to my understanding, Poretto and Vité limit their conclusions to cases where human rights agreements do not contain any express rule on accession of international organisations and the international organisation exercises State functions relating to territorial administration). 60 As Pellet indicates, in international law even human rights are protected by legal norms, and legal norms are simply a result of formal processes whose main function is to ensure their legality. 61 Therefore, the core of 57 The European Union is signatory to the UN Convention on the rights of persons with disabilities. We may also mention the ongoing process of accession of the EU to the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ECHR). WOUTERS, Jan, BREMS, Eva, SMIS, Stefaan, SCHMITT, Pierre. Introductory Remarks. In: Jan Wouters, Eva Brems, Stefaan Smis and Pierre Schmitt (eds.). Accountability for human rights violations by international organisations . Antwerp: Intersentia, 2010, p. 5. 58 One can also think of further sources of human rights obligations that could be discussed, such as decisions of international tribunals, or decisions of an organisation, to which another organisation is a member (e.g. decision of FAO, to which the EU is a member since 1991), or even obligations resulting from succession of international organisations. Such cases are, however, very rare and thus not of pertinent relevance as sources of human rights obligations of international organisations. 59 PORRETTO, Gabriele, VITÉ, Sylvain. The application of international humanitarian law and human rights law to international organisations . No. 1. Geneve: University Center for International Humanitarian Law, 2006, Research Paper Series, pp. 41-42. 60 Ibid. 61 PELLET, Allain. Human Rightism and International law. Supra note 7, p. 5.

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