International Organizations, Human Rights and Accountability: Victims' Right to Reparation as a Litmus Test for Effective Implementation
Abstract
International organisations are active contributors towards protection of human rights and gained a good reputation in this field. However, their activities may also amount to threats or even to violations of human rights, as they occurred for example in the course of military operations, international administrations or adoption of policies.
Moreover, there seems to be a lack of clear mechanisms addressing accountability of international organisations and enabling effective implementation of victims' right to reparation. The overall question of how to deal with responsibility in such cases raises major difficulties not only for international lawyers, but more importantly, for the victims.
Whereas there is a consensus on the existence of a legal obligation of States to provide reparation to victims of serious human rights violations, as it is enshrined for example in all major human rights instruments, the details of its applicability in practice remain rather vague. Issues arise such as who bears the obligation to afford reparation, who is entitled to it, or how the reparation can be claimed and enforced? The present contribution addresses these issues with regard to international organisations, focusing on two crucial questions: The existence of a right to reparation is in substance not disputed anymore, but is it transferable to international organization context, i.e. is there a right to reparation against international organisations? And how (if at all) is this right enforceable? Problematic is also its effective realization, as it seems that when bringing claims for reparation against international organisations, victims often encounter various obstacles creating a substantial gap in effective human rights protection.