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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 (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.