The Transnational Dimension of International Organizations’ Duty of Care Towards Their Civilian Personnel: Lessons from the Case Law on States’ Extraterritorial Human Rights Obligations

Abstract

The purpose of this chapter is to establish under which conditions the civilian personnel sent on mission fall within the human rights jurisdiction of the sending international organization, and the extent of the positive human rights obligations that the latter, consequently, owes to the former. Section 17.2 reviews the existing jurisprudence on the extraterritorial human rights obligations (ETOs) of States with a view to assessing whether the so-called ‘spatial’ model and ‘personal’ model of jurisdiction can provide adequate conceptual bases for the grounding of international organizations’ human rights obligations towards their civilian personnel sent on mission. Section 17.3, building upon the tripartite definition of jurisdiction elaborated by King and taking stock of the available ETO jurisprudence, distills the principles that ground the human rights jurisdiction of an international organization and delimit the extent of its positive human rights obligations towards its personnel. The conclusions of this analysis support the existence of a duty of care anchored in international human rights law that places on the sending international organization positive obligations towards its civilian personnel wherever the latter carries out its tasks, the existence of which does not depend on the formal nature of the employment relationship between the international organization and the individual.