International Organizations. Prof. Dr.Dr. José Escribano. 2025.

UC3M

5. FUNCTIONS OF IO IN
INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY

Main functions of International

Organizations ( II )

E ) Sustainable Development Goals

F ) Protection of the Environment and fight against Climate Change
G ) Fight against Transnational Organized Crime ( Trafficking in
Persons, Smuggling of Migrants ) and Terrorism

E ) SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS ( SDG )

On September 25th 2015, countries adopted a set of goals to end

poverty, protect the planet, and ensure prosperity for all as part of a new
sustainable development agenda. Each goal has specific targets to be achieved
over the next years ( 2016-2030 ).
Link United Nations SDG:
http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/

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F ) PROTECTION OF ENVIRONMENT AND FIGHT

AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE

The protection of environment

Recent years have seen an appreciable growth in the level of understanding

of the dangers facing the international environment1 and an extensive
range of environmental problems is now the subject of serious international
concern.

These include climate change, atmospheric pollution, marine pollution, the

dangers of nuclear and other extra-hazardous substances and threatened
wildlife species.

Such problems have an international dimension in two obvious respects.

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First, pollution generated from within a particular state often has a serious
impact upon other countries. The prime example would be acid rain, whereby
chemicals emitted from factories rise in the atmosphere and react with
water and sunlight to form acids. These are carried in the wind and fall
eventually to earth in the rain, often thousands of miles away from the
initial polluting event.
Secondly, it is now apparent that environmental
problems cannot be resolved by states acting individually. Accordingly,
co-operation between the polluting and the polluted state is necessitated.
The international community has slowly been moving away from the classic
state responsibility approach to damage caused towards a regime of
international co-operation.
A broad range of international participants are concerned with developments
in this field. States, of course, as the dominant subjects of
the international legal system are deeply involved, as are an increasing
number of international organisations, whether at the global, regional
or bilateral level. The United Nations General Assembly has adopted a
number of resolutions concerning the environment, and the UN Environment
Programme was established after the Stockholm Conference of 1972.
This has proved a particularly important organisation in the
evolution of conventions and instruments in the field of environmental
protection. It is based in Nairobi and consists of a Governing Council
of fifty-eight members elected by the General Assembly. UNEP has been
responsible for the development of a number of initiatives, including the 1985
Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer and the 1987
Montreal Protocol and the 1992 Convention on Biodiversity.
An Inter-Agency Committee on Sustainable Development was set up in 1992
to improve co-operation between the various UN bodies concerned with
this topic.

In the same year, the UN Commission on Sustainable Development

was established by the General Assembly and the Economic
and Social Council of the UN (ECOSOC). It consists of fifty-three states

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elected by ECOSOC for three-year terms and it exists in order to followup

the UN Conference on Environment and Development 1992.

The techniques of supervision utilised in international bodies include reporting,

Inspection and standard-setting through the adoption of conventions,
regulations, guidelines and so forth.
In 1994 it was agreed to transform the Global Environment Facility from a
three-year pilot programme into a permanent financial mechanism to award
grants and concessional funds to developing countries for global environmental
protection projects.
The Facility focuses upon climate change, the destruction of biological
diversity, the pollution of international waters and ozone depletion. Issues
of land-degradation also fall within this framework.

It has been argued that there now exists an international human right to a clean
environment.

There are, of course, a range of general human rights provisions that may have a
relevance in the field of environmental protection, such as: the right to life, right
to an adequate standard of living,right to health, right to food and so forth,
but specific references to a human right to a clean environment have tended to
be few and ambiguous. In 1994, the final report on Human Rights and the
Environment was delivered to the UN Sub-Commission on Prevention of
Discrimination and Protection of Minorities (as it was then called). The
Report contains a set of Draft Principles on Human Rights and the
Environment, which includes the notion that

‘human rights, an ecologically sound environment, sustainable development

and peace are interdependent and indivisible’ and that ‘all persons have the
right to a secure, healthy and ecologically sound environment. This right and
other human rights, including civil, cultural, economic, political and social
rights, are universal,
interdependent and indivisible.’

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The question of the relationship between the protection of the environment and
the need for economic development is another factor underpinning the
evolution of environmental law.

Principle 2 of the Rio Declaration, adopted at the United

Nations Conference on Environment and Development 1992, noted that
states have ‘the sovereign right to exploit their own resources pursuant to
their own environmental and developmental policies’, while Principle 3
stated that ‘the right to development must be fulfilled so as to equitably
meet developmental and environmental needs of present and future
generations’.
The correct balance between development and environmental
protection is nowone of the main challenges facing the international community
and reflects the competing interests posed by the principle of state
sovereignty on the one hand and the need for international co-operation
on the other.
It also raises the issue as to how far one takes into account the
legacy for future generations of activities conducted at the present time
or currently planned.Many developmental activities, such as the creation
of nuclear power plants for example, may have significant repercussions
for many generations to come. The Energy Charter Treaty signed at
Lisbon in 1994 by OECD and Eastern European and CIS states refers to
environmental issues in the context of energy concerns in a rather less
than robust fashion. Article 19 notes that contracting parties ‘shall strive
to minimise in an economically efficient manner harmful environmental
impacts’.

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THE FIGHT AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE

The problem of global warming and the expected increase in the temperature
of the earth in the decades to come has focused attention on the
issues particularly of the consumption of fossil fuels and deforestation.
In addition, the depletion of the stratospheric ozone layer, which has the
effect of letting excessive ultraviolet radiation through to the surface of
the earth, is a source of considerable concern.
The problem of the legal characterisation of the ozone layer is a significant one.
Article 1(1) of the Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer,
1985 defines this area as ‘the layer of atmospheric ozone above the planetary
boundary layer’. This area would thus appear, particularly in the light of the
global challenge posed by ozone depletion and climate change, to constitute
a distinct unit with an identity of its own irrespective of national
sovereignty or shared resources claims.

UN General Assembly resolution43/53, for example, states that global climate

change is ‘the common concern of mankind’.

Whatever the precise legal status of this area, what is

important is the growing recognition that the scale of the challenge posed
can only really be tackled upon a truly international or global basis.
In the first serious effort to tackle the problem of ozone depletion, the
Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer was adopted
in 1985, entering into force three years later. This Convention is a framework
agreement, providing the institutional structure for the elaboration
of Protocols laying down specific standards concerning the production of
chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), the agents which cause the destruction of the
ozone layer.

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Under the Convention, contracting parties agree to take appropriate

measures to protect human health and the environment against
adverse effects resulting or likely to result from human activities which
modify or are likely to modify the ozone layer.

In 1987 the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone

Layer was adopted.
General Assembly resolutions 43/53 (1988) and 44/207 (1989)
recognised that climate change was a common concern of mankind and
determined that necessary and timely action should be taken to deal with
this issue.

The General Assembly also called for the convening of a conference

on world climate change, as did the UNEP Governing Council Decision
on Global Climate Change of 25May 1989. In addition, the Hague
Declaration on the Environment 1989, signed by twenty-four states, called
for the establishment of new institutional authority under the auspices
of the UN to combat any further global warming and for the negotiation
of the necessary legal instruments.

UNFCC

The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change was adopted in 1992.

The objective of the Convention is to achieve stabilisation of greenhouse

gases in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous
anthropogenic interference with the climate system and such level should
be achieved within a time-frame sufficient to allow ecosystems to adapt
naturally to climate change, to ensure food production is not threatened
and to enable economic development to proceed in a sustainable
manner.

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The states parties undertake inter alia to develop, update and

publish national inventories of anthropogenic emissions by sources and
removals by sinks of all greenhouse gases not covered by the Montreal
Protocol; to formulate, implement and update national and, where appropriate,
regional programmes containing measures to mitigate climate changes; to
promote and co-operate in the development, application and
transfer of technologies and processes to control, reduce or prevent such
anthropogenic emissions; and to promote and co-operate in research, exchange
of information and education in the field of climate change.

Developed country parties, and certain other parties listed in Annex I,190
commit themselves to take the lead in modifying longer-term trends in
anthropogenic emissions and particularly to adopt national policies and take
corresponding measures on the mitigation of climate change by limiting
anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases and protecting and enhancing
greenhousegas sinks and reservoirs.

Developed country and other Annex I parties

must submit within six months of the Convention coming into force
and periodically thereafter, detailed information on such matters with
the aim of returning anthropogenic emissions to their 1990 levels. This
information provided is to be reviewed by the Conference of the parties
on a periodic basis.

In addition, developed country parties and other developed parties included in

Annex II are to provide the financial resources to enable the developing country
parties to meet their obligations under the Convention and generally to assist
them in coping with the adverse effects of climate change.

The parties agree to give full consideration

to actions necessary to assist developing country parties that may
be, for example, small island countries, countries with low-lying coastal
areas, countries prone to natural disasters, drought and desertification

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and landlocked and transit states.

The Conference of the parties ( COP; in november 2024 took place

the COP-29 in Baku, and in november 2025 will take place the COP-
30 in Brazil ) is established as the supreme body of the Convention and has
the function inter alia to review the implementation of the Convention,
periodically examine the obligations of the parties and the institutional
arrangements established, promote the exchange
of information, facilitate at the request of two or more parties the coordination
of measures taken to address climate change, promote and guide the
development of comparable methodologies for the preparation
of inventories, assess the implementation of the Convention by the
parties, consider and adopt regular reports on implementation and make
recommendations on any matters necessary for the implementation of the
Convention.
In addition, the Convention provides for a secretariat to be
established, together with a subsidiary body for scientific and technological
advice and a subsidiary body for implementation.
The Convention as a whole is a complex document and the range of
commitments entered into, particularly by developed country parties, is not
wholly clear.
The Convention entered into force in 1994 and the following year the
first session of the Conference was held in Berlin.
It was agreed that the pledges by the developed country parties to reduce
emissions by 2000 to 1990 levels were not adequate and preparations were
commenced to draft a further legal instrument by 1997. It was also agreed not
to establish new commitments for developing country parties, but rather to
assist the implementation of existing commitments. The parties decided to
initiate a pilot phase for joint implementation projects, providing for investment
from one party in greenhouse gas emissions reduction opportunities in
another party. In addition, it was decided to establish a permanent secretariat
in Bonn and two subsidiary advisory bodies.

The 1997 Kyoto Protocol ( in force until 2020 ) commits developed country
parties to individual, legally binding targets to limit or reduce their greenhouse

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gas emissions, adding up to a total cut of at least 5 per cent from 1990 levels in
the ‘commitment period’ of 2008–2012.

The Conference of the Parties meets regularly to review the Convention

and Protocol. There are two supplementary bodies, one on scientific
and technological advice and one on implementation. The financial
mechanism of the Convention is operated by the Global Environment Facility,
established by the World Bank, UN Environment Programme and
UN Development Programme in 1991, while advice is received from the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , established by the World
Meteorological Organisation and the UN Environmental Programme.

The new Paris Agreement ( COP 21., dez., 15 th., 2015 ) in the fight
against the climate change. In force since November, 4 th. 2016. It
has the goal in the XXI century of reducing the greenhouse gas
emissions and reducing the global warming. The Paris Agreement’s
central aim is to strengthen the global response to the threat of
climate change by keeping a global temperature rise this century well
below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to pursue
efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees
Celsius.

G ) FIGHT AGAINST TRANSNATIONAL

ORGANIZED CRIME ( TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS,
SMUGGLING OF MIGRANTS ) AND TERRORISM

FIGHT AGAINST SMUGGLING OF MIGRANTS (

SOM ) AND TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS ( TIP )
New United Nations university modules on SOM and TIP ( 2019 ):
http://www.unodc.org/e4j/en/tertiary/trafficking-in-persons-smuggling-of-
migrants.html

SMUGGLING OF MIGRANTS ( SOM )

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The criminalization of smuggling of migrants

Sovereign States have the right to organize and regulate the entry of foreigners
in their territory. They may determine that non-nationals or non-residents must
comply with certain requirements to legally enter and stay. These restrictions on
transnational mobility are not new and have had the effect of creating demand
for migrant smuggling services. For example, rules imposed on certain types of
immigrants, such as those regulated by the US-Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882,
generated a smuggling market along the US-Mexico border involving Chinese
nationals trying to re-enter American territory. Likewise, in the 1980's many
people attempted to escape East Germany by crossing the Berlin Wall into West
Germany, often with the assistance of smugglers. Many of these people were
welcomed abroad, following recognition of the persecution or violence they were
likely to face in their countries of origin (van Leimpt, 2016).
It was in the 1990s that States decided to address the involvement of organized
criminal groups in migrant smuggling. These groups were increasingly taking
advantage of refugee movements and flows of irregular migration caused by
war, persecution and poverty to earn substantial profits. In December 1998, the
United Nations General Assembly established an intergovernmental ad-hoc
committee and gave it the mandate of developing a new international legal
regime to fight transnational organized crime (A/RES/53/111). In October
2000, with the participation of over 120 States, the ad-hoc committee concluded
its work, which culminated in theUnited Nations Convention against
Transnational Organized Crime and its three Protocols, dealing respectively
with trafficking in persons, smuggling of migrants and trafficking in firearms.
This process was the first serious attempt by the international community to
address transnational organized crime. It is noteworthy that migrant smuggling
had such a prominent place on the agenda.
It should be noted that criminalization of smuggling of migrants (and the
criminal justice response to the crime) is only one component of a holistic
response, which should also include strategies to prevent the crime, such as
through addressing root causes, and protect smuggled migrants. Law
enforcement and criminal justice are addressed in these Modules as one part of
an effective strategy aimed at countering smuggling of migrants and protecting
the rights of those smuggled. In addition, as highlighted in this Module,
criminalization of smuggling of migrants targets organized criminal groups and
individuals engaging in migrant smuggling for profit.

Migrant smuggling v. irregular migration

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Migrant smuggling is not equivalent to irregular migration. Smuggling refers to

situations whereby someone procures the illegal entry or stay of another person
in a country of which he or she is neither a national nor a permanent resident,
for the purpose of obtaining, directly or indirectly, a financial or other material
benefit. Irregular migration can be defined as a migratory movement that takes
place outside the regulatory frameworks of the origin, transit and destination
countries.
The Smuggling of Migrants Protocol is a criminal justice and not a migration
management instrument. Migrant smuggling does not include the conduct of
those that procure their own illegal entry, transit or stay in another country. As
such, it does not criminalize migration, nor does it criminalize the actions of
those facilitating the illegal entry, transit or stay of another person in a country
for purposes other than obtaining a financial or other material benefit.
It is important to note that individuals escaping persecution, violence and
conflict often need to resort to the services of smugglers. Their asylum claims
should not be jeopardized in any manner as a result of being smuggled (article
19 of the Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants and article 31 of the United
Nations Convention on the Status of Refugees).
As noted previously, in some countries the financial or other material benefit
element does not appear as a constituent element of the offence. This is beyond
the scope of the Protocol and reflects an understanding of migrant smuggling as
a specific crime type that is different from the Protocol.
Migrant smuggling vis-à-vis other crime types

The relationship between migrant smuggling and other serious crimes may be
addressed from different perspectives:
• Further to criminalizing the offences enshrined in the Protocol against
the Smuggling of Migrants, States are further required to criminalize
several types of conduct under its parent Convention (UNTOC):
participation in an organized criminal group (article 5 UNTOC),
laundering of the proceeds of crime (article 6 UNTOC), corruption
(article 8 UNTOC), and obstruction of justice (article 23 UNTOC).
The linkage between smuggling of migrants and these crimes is often
'structural'. That is, corruption (many times of State agents and public
officials) is a means to give effect to smuggling, money-laundering
maximizes smugglers' possibility of evading detection, obstruction of
justice - often by threats and intimidation of smuggled migrants - is a
powerful mechanism to obstruct investigations. For an in-depth analysis
of the role of corruption in the smuggling of migrants see UNODC's Issue
Paper on Corruption and the Smuggling of Migrants .
• From a substantive viewpoint, migrant smuggling may be inextricably
connected to other crimes. For instance, it is not uncommon that
smuggled migrants become victims of trafficking in persons, for example

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in debt bondage situations. Smuggled migrants might be used as 'mules'

for the trafficking of drugs.

SMUGGLING OF MIGRANTS ( SOM ) AND

TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS ( TIP ): DIFFERENCES
AND COMMONALITIES

Comparing smuggling of migrants and trafficking

in persons

Smuggling of migrants

Smuggling of migrants is defined in article 3 of the Protocol against the

Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air (Protocol against the Smuggling of
Migrants).

(…) the procurement, in order to obtain, directly or indirectly, a financial or

other material benefit, of the illegal entry of a person into a State Party of
which the person is not a national or a permanent resident.

The Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants criminalizes not only smuggling
of migrants - that is, the facilitation of illegal entry for profit - but also related
conduct. This includes enabling of illegal stay by any illegal means, as well as
producing, procuring, providing or possessing a fraudulent document to enable
the smuggling of migrants. Each of these offences are prescribed in article 6 of
the Protocol.

Article 6 of the Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants

1 . Each State Party shall adopt such legislative and other measures as may
be necessary to establish as criminal offences, when committed
intentionally and in order to obtain, directly or indirectly, a financial or
other material benefit:
(a) The smuggling of migrants;

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(b) When committed for the purpose of enabling the smuggling of migrants:
(i) Producing a fraudulent travel or identity document;
(ii) Procuring, providing or possessing such a document;
(c) Enabling a person who is not a national or a permanent resident to
remain in the State concerned without complying with the necessary
requirements for legally remaining in the State by the means mentioned in
subparagraph (b) of this paragraph or any other illegal means. (…)

Trafficking in persons
Trafficking in persons is defined in article 3 of the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress
and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children (Protocol
against Trafficking in Persons), supplementing the United Nations Convention
against Transnational Organized Crime. The offence of trafficking in prescribed
in article 5 of the Protocol.

Article 3 of the Protocol against Trafficking in Persons

(a) "Trafficking in persons" shall mean the recruitment, transportation,
transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of
force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the
abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving
of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control
over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall
include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other
forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices
similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs;
(b) The consent of a victim of trafficking in persons to the intended
exploitation set forth in subparagraph (a) of this article shall be irrelevant
where any of the means set forth in subparagraph (a) have been used;
(c) The recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of a
child for the purpose of exploitation shall be considered "trafficking in
persons" even if this does not involve any of the means set forth in
subparagraph (a) of this article;
(d) "Child" shall mean any person under eighteen years of age.

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FIGHT AGAINST TERRORISM

( http://www.un.org/en/counterterrorism/index.shtml )

The use of terror as a means to achieve political ends is not a new

phenomenon, but it has recently acquired a new intensity.

PROBLEMS OR DEBATES:

1. The first major concern is that of definition.

For example, how widely should the offence be defined, for instance should
attacks against property as well as attacks upon persons be covered? And to
what extent should one take into account the motives and intentions of the
perpetrators?

2. Secondly, the relationship between terrorism and the use of force by

states in response is posed.

3. Thirdly, the relationship between terrorism and the protection of

human rights needs to be taken into account ( art. 15 Eur.
Conventions on human rights: Countermeasures by the states in case
of terrorist attack, but with restrictions - right to life , prohibition of
torture , etc ).

Despite political difficulties, increasing progress at an international

and regional level has been made to establish rules of international
law with regard to terrorism.

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- 13 CONVENTIONS: the UN has currently adopted thirteen

international conventions concerning
terrorism, dealing with issues such as hijacking, hostages and
terrorist bombings, fiht agains financing terrorist activities, nuclear
terrorism, etc.

THERE IS NO GENERAL UN CONVENTION ON INTERNATIONAL

TERRORISM

The UN has sought to tackle the question of terrorism in a comprehensive

fashion.

- In December 1972, the General Assembly

set up an ad hoc committee on terrorism and in 1994 a Declaration
on Measures to Eliminate International Terrorism was adopted.

1- This condemned ‘all acts, methods and practices of terrorism, as criminal

and unjustifiable, wherever and by whomever committed’, noting that
‘criminal acts intended or calculated to provoke a state of terror in the general
public, a group or person or persons or particular persons for political
purposes are in any circumstance unjustifiable, whatever the
considerations of a political, philosophical, ideological, racial, ethnic, religious
or any other nature that may be invoked to justify them’.

2. States are also obliged to refrain from organising, instigating, facilitating,

financing or tolerating terrorist activities and to take practical measures to
ensure that their territories are not used for terrorist installations, training
camps or for the preparation of terrorist acts against other states.

3. States are further obliged to apprehend and prosecute or extradite

perpetrators of terrorist acts and to co-operate with other states in exchanging
information and combating terrorism.

The United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy’,

( 2006 )

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In September 2006, the General Assembly adopted ‘The United Nations

Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy’,
Comprising:
a Plan of Action, including
1. To condemn terrorism
in all its forms and manifestations as it constitutes ‘one of the most serious
threats to international peace and security’;
2. To promote international co-operation;
3. To fight against the spread of terrorism;
4. To adopt a variety of measures to prevent and combat terrorism;
5. To adopt measures to build states’ capacity to prevent and combat
terrorism;
and, finally,
6. To take measures to ensure respect for human rights for all and the rule
of law as the fundamental basis of the fight against terrorism.

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