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2018 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

10. Implementation of the Duty of Care by the OSCE

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Abstract

This chapter offers a comprehensive overview on the implementation of the duty of care within the OSCE. Stepping into the debate concerning the international legal personality of international organizations, the author discusses recent practice and argues that, especially in the 2014 and 2017 cases of injuries involving officials, the OSCE reacted in the international arena as an independent subject. Starting with this premise, this chapter analyses how the OSCE, as an international subject, complies with the duty of care. To this end, the internal rules defining the status of staff and the correlating mechanisms of enforcement are illustrated. Special attention is paid to Staff Regulation 2.07—which entitles OSCE officials to functional protection in the external relations of the organization—and to its implementation in the recent practice of the organization. The chapter concludes that, in addition to the development of the international standing of the OSCE, the proper realisation of the duty of care requires that the OSCE and its participating States take a further step toward recognising the legal personality of the organization and its officials within their domestic legal order.

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Footnotes
1
Statistics are available on the official website http://​www.​osce.​org/​. See also Pisillo Mazzeschi 2016, p. 57.
 
2
In 2009 the OSCE established an open-ended Informal Working Group on Strengthening the Legal Framework of the OSCE that in its meeting of July 2017 addressed the topic ‘Duty of Care: Safety and Security’, SEC.GAL/145/17, dated 5 October 2017.
 
3
Panel of Eminent Persons on European Security as a Common Project (2015), Recommendation 3.
 
4
Tabassi 2015, para 6.3.
 
5
Brander 2009, pp. 19 ff.
 
6
See, inter alia, Tomuschat 2016, who argued that ‘participating States have a legal and moral duty to protect those working on the OSCE’s behalf, often risking their personal integrity’.
 
7
ICJ, Reparation for Injuries Suffered in the Service of the United Nations, 11 April 1949, I.C.J. Rep. 1949, p. 174, p. 178.
 
8
Ibid., p. 180.
 
9
For the interpretation according to which the ICJ case law supports the theory of the ‘objective personality’, see Blokker and Wessel 2017, p. 9.
 
10
Jenks 1945.
 
11
Moving from such assumption, Tichy and Köhler, for example, have argued that ‘the question as to whether the OSCE is indeed an international organization in the sense of an intergovernmental organization enjoying international legal personality has to be answered in the negative’ (Tichy and Köhler 2008, p. 459). Note that the position taken evolved over time and the same author has taken an updated view: Tichy and Quidenus 2017, pp. 403 ff.
 
12
Gazzini 2011, p. 35.
 
13
Klabbers 2015, p. 54. On this point, see also Gaja 2003, p. 111: ‘Even if a treaty provision were intended to confer international personality on a particular organization, the acquisition of legal personality would depend on the actual establishment of the organization. It is clear that an organization merely existing on paper cannot be considered a subject of international law’.
 
14
Seyersted 1963, p. 47.
 
15
Verdirame 2011, p. 60.
 
16
Gazzini 2011, p. 36.
 
17
Seidl-Hohenveldern 1995, p. 233.
 
18
Klabbers 2015, p. 56; Verdirame 2011.
 
19
For an insight on this process see Odello 2006, p. 351.
 
20
Sapiro 1995, p. 631.
 
21
https://​www.​osce.​org/​mc/​39554?​download=​true, para 29. Accessed 3 January 2018. According to one view, despite its statement, the acquisition of legal personality was inherent in the Budapest decisions (Bertrand 1998, pp. 366–406).
 
22
Final Document of the Fourth Meeting of the CSCE Council of Ministers, Rome, 1993, decision 2, p. 17.
 
23
As has been argued: ‘Legal personality under international law does not necessarily imply legal personality under domestic law. On the other hand, the absence of legal personality under domestic law does not affect its status under international law, and hence the possibility that the organization incurs international responsibility’ Gaja 2003, p. 111, para 18.
 
24
According to the information notified by the respective authorities of the OSCE participating States, those States are: Italy, Hungary, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, United States of America, Denmark and Germany (https://​www.​oscepa.​org/​documents/​all-documents/​helsinki-40/​seminar-4-diid/​2814-helsinki-40-food-for-thought-paper-the-osce-s-lack-of-an-agreed-legal-status-challenges-in-crisi-situation/​file).
 
25
Bilateral MOUs have been concluded between the OSCE and Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Montenegro, Serbia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, 2 with Ukraine and Uzbekistan and there are also agreements between the specific OSCE mission and the host government (i.e. Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina; Moldova and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia). See for reference Tabassi 2017, p. 7. The Memorandum of Understanding concluded between the Government of Ukraine and the OSCE, in 1999, which inter alia binds the former to grant rights, privileges and immunities to the OSCE staff in the territory of Ukraine provides an example. See, in particular, Memorandum of understanding between the Government of Ukraine and the OSCE (1999). http://​www.​osce.​org/​ukraine/​37928. Accessed 28 February 2018, Article 6.
 
26
See OSCE Staff Regulations and Staff Rules, Regulation 2.03, https://​jobs.​osce.​org/​resources/​document/​osce-staff-regulations-and-staff-rules. Accessed 28 February 2018.
 
27
See the considerations of Tabassi 2015.
 
28
Tabassi 2017, p. 13.
 
29
Panel of Eminent Persons on Strengthening the Effectiveness of the OSCE 2005.
 
30
Decision of the December 2006 Ministerial Council n. 16/06, MC.DEC/16/06. http://​www.​osce.​org/​mc/​23203?​download=​true. Accessed 18 January 2018.
 
31
OSCE document CIO.GAL/48/07/Rev.6, 23 October 2007.
 
32
The interpretative statement by the Russian Federation to the Decision of the December 2006 Ministerial Council n. 16/06, MC.DEC/16/06, says that ‘while it has joined the consensus on the Ministerial Council decision on the legal status and privileges and immunities of the OSCE, the Russian delegation continues to insist that the only way of settling this matter in accordance with the norms of international law is to devise a founding OSCE document in the form of a charter or statute. Without a charter, the OSCE cannot be regarded as a fully-fledged international organization. We believe it is necessary to proceed from the recommendation made in that connection in the report of the Panel of Eminent Persons, pursuant to which the participating States should devise a concise statute or charter of the OSCE containing its basic goals and principles along with reference to existing commitments and the structure of its main decision-making bodies. In any case, the entry into force of a convention on privileges and immunities, if and when there is agreement on a draft, will be possible only in conjunction with the entry into force of a statute or charter of the OSCE […]’ (Ibid.).
 
33
See, inter alia, Blokker and Wessel 2017, p. 3.
 
34
OSCE 2017, para 6.
 
35
Point I of the Final Act of Helsinki, for instance, declares that ‘within the framework of international law, all participating States have equal rights and duties’. Similar assertions may be found in other declarations and decisions taken by its organs, showing that the OSCE commitments are considered part of international law and often reproduce its content.
 
36
Condorelli 1994, pp. 47 ff.
 
37
This provision states that ‘valid consent by a State to the commission of a given act by another State precludes the wrongfulness of that act in relation to the former State to the extent that the act remains within the limits of that consent’.
 
38
Ibid., p. 52.
 
39
Ibid., p. 50.
 
40
Federal law on the legal status of the OSCE Institutions in Austria, OSCE Law, Federal Gazette (BGBl.) N. 511/1993, as amended.
 
41
Tichy and Quidenus 2017, pp. 403–413 ff.
 
42
OSCE 2017, para 29; Tichy and Quidenus 2017, p. 412.
 
43
See Arsić-Đapo 2017, pp. 414 ff.
 
44
OSCE 2017, paras 38 and 39.
 
45
Ibid.
 
46
As it has been argued, qualifying this force as legally, or merely politically, binding is not significant, considering that ‘violation of politically but non-legally binding agreements is as inadmissible as any violation of norms of international law’ (Berger 1996, p. 38). Another prominent author questioned the very existence of politically, non-legally, binding obligations. In particular, he wrote: ‘law is the normative order governing political behaviour: our political agreements become law, whether we intend them to or not, precisely because “politics” is not (and can hardly be) a separate normative order’ (Klabbers 2001, p. 412).
 
47
According to one view, ‘international personality is to be inferred from international responsibility, not the other way round’ (Gazzini 2011, p. 38).
 
48
Tabassi 2017, p. 23.
 
50
OSCE Operational Guidelines for Working in a Potentially Hazardous Environment. http://​www.​osce.​org/​secretariat/​74739?​download=​true. Accessed 23 January 2018.
 
51
Ibid., p. 15.
 
52
UK Stabilisation Unit (2014) Deployee Guide: Working in a mission for the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). http://​www.​sclr.​stabilisationuni​t.​gov.​uk/​publications/​deployee-guide-series. Accessed 23 January 2018, p. 18.
 
53
OSCE Operational Guidelines, p. 15.
 
55
ICJ, Reparation for Injuries Suffered in the Service of the United Nations, p. 177.
 
56
OSCE Staff Regulations and Staff Rules.
 
57
OSCE Operational Guidelines, pp. 23 ff.
 
58
OSCE 2004.
 
59
OSCE Operational Guidelines, p. 25, para 3.3.
 
60
OSCE Staff Regulations and Staff Rules, Rule 6.02.2.
 
62
Ibid., Regulation 6.5.
 
63
Ibid., Rule 2.06.1.
 
64
Ibid., Regulation 2.08.
 
65
OSCE Operational Guidelines.
 
66
UK Stabilisation Unit 2014.
 
67
See Appendix 1 to SRSR.
 
68
The OSCE Office for Internal Oversight was established in 2000 by the OSCE Permanent Council. For more information see http://​www.​osce.​org/​resources/​factsheets/​office-of-internal-oversight?​download=​true. Accessed 14 January 2018.
 
69
See the Internal Oversight Mandate (2000) OSCE doc PC.DEC/399, Annex 6.
 
70
Tabassi 2018, para 3.2.
 
71
Unfortunately, the content of these documents is not public.
 
72
ICJ, Reparation for Injuries Suffered in the Service of the United Nations, p. 182.
 
73
Ibid.
 
74
Ibid., p. 183.
 
75
For all the relevant information concerning the exercise of functional protection in these cases, see Tabassi 2018, paras 2.1 ff.
 
76
This mission was decided by the Permanent Council with the decision n. 1117 of 21 March 2014. Reference to this case of abduction of OSCE officials may be found in: OSCE (2014) Permanent Council Decision No. 1117. http://​www.​osce.​org/​pc/​116747. Accessed 23 January 2018.
 
77
Tabassi 2018, para 3.2.
 
78
OSCE Secretariat (2017) OSCE Permanent Council expresses support for Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine, calls for swift investigation. http://​www.​osce.​org/​chairmanship/​314331. Accessed 16 February 2018.
 
79
Ibid.
 
80
Ibid.
 
81
Ibid.
 
82
For detailed information on training in the OSCE see: SIDA (2004) Training for Service in OSCE Missions. https://​www.​sida.​se/​contentassets/​83c2ff01b65c48d5​bd9029b893cede09​/​training-for-service-in-osce-missions_​1024.​pdf. Accessed 16 February 2018.
 
83
The list is available here: https://​jobs.​osce.​org/​resources/​document/​partner-institutions. Accessed 16 February 2018.
 
84
The content is available here: OSCE, Pre-arrival information package for new OSCE staff/mission members https://​jobs.​osce.​org/​resources/​document/​pre-arrival-information-package-new-osce-staffmission-members. Accessed 16 February 2018.
 
85
OSCE Operational Guidelines.
 
86
See Article VIII of Appendix 12 to the OSCE Staff Regulations and Staff Rules.
 
87
According to Article VIII of Appendix 2 to the OSCE Staff Regulations and Staff Rules: ‘If the Panel finds that the application is well founded it shall recommend the rescission of the impugned decision or the performance by the OSCE of the obligation invoked’.
 
88
See above footnote 24.
 
89
See the quotation of Tomuschat 2016 in footnote 6. See also Klabbers, who attributes an ‘indirect responsibility’ to the member States of an international organization for the accomplishment of the objectives of the organization (Klabbers 2002, p. 313).
 
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Metadata
Title
Implementation of the Duty of Care by the OSCE
Author
Deborah Russo
Copyright Year
2018
Publisher
T.M.C. Asser Press
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6265-258-3_10