intergovernmental organization

Intergovernmental Organizations- G8, G20, BRICS.

Made by – Sumaiya SaleemBA LLB Sec-B, 3rd Sem

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Intergovernmental Organization

In the absence of a treaty an IGO does not exist in the legal sense.

. Main Purpose of IGOs :To create a mechanism for the world’s inhabitants

The term intergovernmental organization (IGO) refers to an entity created by treaty, involving two or more nations, to work in good faith, on issues of common interest.

Types of IGOs• IGOs are typically organized by their membership

and by their purpose. For example, among the oldest IGOs is the United Nations, which replaced the League of Nations.

• Other IGOs are referred to as selective organizations because they base their membership on criteria other than geography. The Organization of the Islamic Conference, for example, bases its membership on religious affiliation.

• OPEC, on the other hand, is comprised only of countries that produce oil.

• Specialized IGOs, such as NATO, limit their activities to a particular field.

Types of Legal Issues and Positions• Draft acts, rules and regulations for legislative

bodies and serve as their policy advisors.• Provide legal expertise to an IGO's dispute

resolution mechanism or executive body.• Prosecute persons for war crimes and other

violations of international human rights.• Serve as a Legal Officer performing legal

research, providing written and oral legal advice to the principal and subsidiary organs of the IGO, and minimizing its legal liabilities.

Participation and involvement• Economic Rewards - North American Free

Trade Agreement (NAFTA).• Political Influence – European Union (EU)• Security – North Atlantic Treaty Organization

(NATO)• Improve democracy and the likelihood of

democratic survival -

G8

• What does the G stand for?• What is the G8?Since 1975, the heads of state or government of the major industrial democracies have been meeting annually to deal with the major economic and political issues faced by their domestic societies and the international community as a whole.

BackgroundThe six countries at the first summit, held at Rambouillet, France, in November 1975, were France, the United States, Britain, Germany, Japan and Italy, sometimes referred to as the G6.

Consequently, the 1998 Birmingham Summit saw full Russian participation, giving birth to the Group of Eight, or G8.

They were joined by Canada at the San Juan Summit of 1976 in Puerto Rico. From then on, membership in the Group of Seven, or G7, was fixed.

The responsibility of host rotates throughout the summit cycle at the end of the calendar year, as follows:

FranceUnited StatesUnited KingdomRussiaGermanyJapanItalyCanada.

Role/Objectives of G8• The G8 Summit has consistently dealt with macroeconomic

management, international trade, and relations with developing countries.

• The G8 has developed a network of supporting ministerial meetings, which allow ministers to meet regularly throughout the year in order to continue the work set out at each summit.

• The G8 provides an important occasion for busy leaders to discuss major, often complex international issues, and to the develop the personal relations that help them respond in effective collective fashion to sudden crises or shocks.

• The summit members comply modestly with the decisions and consensus generated by and codified at their annual meeting.

Structure of G8

• By design, the G8 deliberately lacks an administrative structure like those for international organizations, such as the United Nations or the World Bank. The group does not have a permanent secretariat, or offices for its members.

• The presidency of the group rotates annually among member countries, with each new term beginning on 1 January of the year.

• The country holding the presidency is responsible for planning and hosting a series of ministerial-level meetings, leading up to a mid-year summit attended by the heads of government.

• The president of the European Commission participates as an equal in all summit events

G20The G20 is an informal group of 19 countries and the European Union, with representatives of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

The main motivation for launching a new international group was the crisis in emerging economies that had begun in Thailand in mid 1997, and which widened and intensified through the next two years, touching other important Asian economies, before spreading to Russia and Latin America.

On 25th September 1999, the finance ministers and central bank governors of the Group of Seven countries (the G-7) announced their intention to “broaden the dialogue on key economic and financial policy issues among systemically significant economies and promote co-operation to achieve stable and sustainable world economic growth that benefits all.”

The announcement marked the official birth of what subsequently became known as the Group of Twenty countries (the G-20), consisting of 19 countries—Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Mexico, the Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States—and the European Union. The Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the President of the World Bank, along with the chairs of the International Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC) and the Development Committee (DC), also participate in G-20 meetings of finance ministers and central bank governors ex officio.

Collectively, the G-20 brings together systemically important advanced and emerging economies that represent roughly 85% of global GDP and two-thirds of the world’s population.

Roles/Objectives of G20• Help shape the international agenda and to discuss economic

and financial issues in areas where consensus had not yet been achieved.

• G-20 discussions also contributed to the introduction of collective action clauses in international bond contracts, and to the adoption of an informal code of conduct.

• The establishment of the G-20 recognized the considerable changes in the international economic landscape over the previous decades.

• Initial focus was on issues related to international financial stability.

• The G-20 played an important role supporting globalization, and efforts to ensure that its benefits could be shared by all, including the poorest developing countries.

Structure of G20

• The G-20 operates without a permanent secretariat or staff. The chair rotates annually among the members and is selected from a different regional grouping of countries. The chair is part of a revolving three-member management group of past, present and future chairs referred to as the Troika.

The incumbent chair establishes a temporary secretariat for the duration of its term, which coordinates the group's work and organizes its meetings. The role of the Troika is to ensure continuity in the G-20's work and management across host years. The current chair of the G-20 is Russia; the chair was handed over from Mexico after the June 2012 G-20 Summit.

BRICS

• BRICS is the acronym for an association of five major emerging national economies : Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

• The BRICS members are all developing or newly industrialized countries.

• all five are G-20 members.• The foreign ministers of the initial four BRIC states

(Brazil, Russia, India, and China) met in New York City in September 2006, beginning a series of high-level meetings. A full-scale diplomatic meeting was held in Yekaterinburg, Russia, on 16 May 2008.

First BRIC summit

• The BRIC grouping's first formal summit, also held in Yekaterinburg, commenced on 16 June 2009.

• The summit's focus was on means of improving the global economic situation and reforming financial institutions, and discussed how the four countries could better co-operate in the future.

Roles/Objectives of BRICS• The BRICS Forum encourages commercial, political and cultural

cooperation between the BRICS nations.• Although the BRICS have not reached the level of industrialization

that characterizes traditional donors and are still plagued by persistent inequality and poverty, the BRICS have started to disburse significant investment and foreign assistance funds to other developing countries.

• It is expected to lead peace and security efforts, promote regional economic integration and fund development projects.

• Promote the technological information exchange among the countries.

• Improve the professional development and education of the BRIC countries.

Points to remember• Vladimir Putin, President of Russia, has been the current G8 senior

leader since 7 May 2012.The first G8 summit meeting was held in November of 1975 in France.The 39th G8 summit was held on 17–18 June 2013 in Northern Ireland.

• The current chair of the G-20 is Russia.The first meeting of the G20 Leaders took place in Washington, D.C., on November 14-15, 2008.The 8th G20 Summit was held on 5-6 September 2013 in Russia.

• Presently, South Africa holds the chair of the BRICS.The 1st BRIC summit took place in Yekaterinburg, Russia on June 16, 2009.The 5st BRIC summit took place in Durban, South Africa in 2013.

How does intergovernmental organizations influence international relations?

• IGOs contribute to habits of cooperation. Through IGOs, states become socialized to regular interactions.

• IGOs often spearhead the creation and maintenance of international rules and principles. They establish expectations about their behavior of other states.

• For states, IGOs enlarge the possibilities for foreign policy making and add to the constraints under which states operate and especially implement foreign policy. States join IGOs to use them as instruments of foreign policy.

• IGOs affect individuals by providing opportunities for leadership. As individuals work with or in IGOs, they, like states, may become socialized to cooperate internationally.

Conclusion• Since the inception of various intergovernmental organizations, their

membership and outside observers have come to view these as an important addition to the international architecture that has made a valued contribution to better global governance.

• Such organizations have been particularly successful in sharing experiences and exchanging views on key global issues.

• The keys to their success have been the ability to engage in meaningful debate, frankly and informally, and a commitment to seek consensus.

• These intergovernmental organizations must continue to build on these successes, since their future role will depend on the ability of their members to continue to collaborate in an effective manner.

References

-findingdulcinia.com-wwnorton.com-www.wssu.edu-brics.utoronto.com-www.law.harvard.edu