Intergovernmental Group Research Articles

The Nigerian Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Bill, 2016: A Critical Appraisal

PURPOSE – This paper critically examines the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Bill, 2016. Its aim is to determine the level of effectiveness of the preventive measures in the Bill.DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH – The appraisal took the form of a desk study, which analyzed various documents and reports such as the Financial Action Task Force Recommendations 2012, Mutual Evaluation Reports conducted by the Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA) on Nigeria, the Judgment delivered by Justice Gabriel Kolawole of the Federal High Court Abuja and the United Kingdom’s national risk assessment of money laundering and terrorist financing.FINDINGS – This paper determined that the Bill could achieve its core objectives if the following recommendations are implemented:i. Section 15 of the Bill should be modified to include the definition of ‘Arrangement’.ii. Lawyers should be allowed to send their Suspicious Transaction Report (STR) to the Nigerian Bar Association, provided that there are appropriate forms of cooperation between the NBA and the Financial Intelligence Unit. This approach is in line with the Financial Action Task Force Recommendations.iii. The Bill should expressly prohibit retaliation by employers against whistleblowers and provide them with a private cause of action in the event that they are discharged or discriminated against by their employers. This approach is being adopted by the United States Dodd-Frank Act.iv. A request for customer information, by the Director-General of the Nigeria Financial Intelligence Centre, should be made pursuant to an order of the Federal High Court obtained upon an ex-parte application supported by a sworn declaration by an authorized officer of the Centre, justifying the request for customer information. ORIGINALITY/VALUE – This Article offers a critical appraisal of the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Bill, 2016. The paper will identify the strengths and weaknesses of the Bill. This is the only article to adopt this kind of approach.

Pragmatism Without Principle?: How a Comprehensive Treaty on Business and Human Rights Ought to Be Framed, Why It Cannt, and the Dangers of the Pragmatic Turn in Treaty Crafting

In June 2014, an “open-ended intergovernmental working group to elaborate an international legally binding instrument to regulate, in international human rights law, the activities of transnational corporations and other business enterprises” (IGWG) was established to overcome a number of purported deficiencies that some states and civil society actors had expressed about the soft law U.N. Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights framework, endorsed by the Human Rights Council in 2011. Any move from regulatory systems grounded in Guiding Principles to one grounded in Treaty making raises two questions. The first is normative: what are the substantive goals of such a treaty. The second is operational: how should those goals be expressed in an international treaty? Both questions go to the fundamental ordering principles of regulatory construction and way such principles are developed and applied. After a short introduction, the essay first considers the great framework principles that might be extracted from the mandate for treaty elaboration of the IGWG. Those principles provide the objectives and substantive principles around which a comprehensive treaty will be elaborated. The essay then turns to the consideration of two levels of principles that may be used to guide pragmatic choices in treaty elaboration. The first touches on the great framework principles that give the treaty its structure and coherence within the objectives of the mandate. These suggest the range of ideological choices that must serve as a starting point for treaty drafting that is principled. Pragmatism follows from the need to choose among these framing principles or work through ways of blending them that avoid incoherence of the treaty as a whole. The second touches on issues of application of framing principle in the actual drafting of treaty provisions. Distinct framing principles privilege or emphasize distinct sets of provisions. Coordinating principle and provision — or moderating that connection suggests the scope of pragmatism that most take for granted (as the routine “wheeling and dealing” of negotiation, but which are guided by the usually unstated normative frameworks the purpose of which is to ensure coherence and fidelity to the basic ideological foundation of the draft.

Towards a Business and Human Rights Treaty

A new wave of international discussion on an international binding instrument on business and human rights was triggered by the proposal for a business and human rights treaty by some states, originally represented by Ecuador and South Africa. Through its resolution A/HRC/RES/26/9 in June 2014, the Human Rights Council decided to establish “an open-ended intergovernmental working group” to elaborate “an international legally binding instrument to regulate, in international human rights law, the activities of transnational corporations and other business enterprises”. Despite the Council mandate, the debate on a binding approach still continues and the necessity of a business human rights treaty remains controversial. This thesis addresses a three-fold research question on the proposal of a business and human rights treaty: 1) What is the state of play in the ongoing debate of a binding proposal? 2) Is it necessary to elaborate a business and human rights treaty? 3) If one is deemed necessary, how should a business and human rights treaty be formulated? The research question is answered by a combination of methods; including empirical research, literature review and legal analysis. The approach of this thesis is both empirical and legal.In Chapter Two, this thesis takes a close observation of the ongoing debate on the proposal of a binding instrument on business and human rights. In Chapter Three, this thesis conducts a comprehensive examination on the necessity of a business and human rights treaty. It evaluates the necessity of a treaty from four significant issues of international legalization in the field of business and human rights. These issues are: the legal need of a business and human rights treaty in international legal framework, the political as well as legal achievability of a treaty on business and human rights, and the potential implications of elaborating a treaty on business and human rights. In Chapter Four, this thesis provides a constructive proposal on the specific legal formulation of a business and human rights treaty. The proposal discusses four general issues including: the duty-bearers, scope, extraterritoriality and function of a business and human rights treaty. The proposal suggests seven of the core provisions of a business and human rights treaty and provides commentaries for each provision.Firstly, it is shown that while the necessity of a business and human rights treaty is still a core concern in the ongoing debate, potential issues have emerged. Further, it is deemed that it is necessary to elaborate a business and human rights treaty. Finally, it is suggested that a binding instrument on business and human rights should be a framework convention on strengthening the state obligation to protect human rights against abuses by businesses.

Essay: Considering a Treaty on Corporations and Human Rights: Mostly Failures But with a Glimmer of Success

In June 2014, three years after it endorsed the U. N. Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, the UN Human Rights Council moved to establish an open-ended intergovernmental working group to elaborate an international legally binding instrument to regulate, in international human rights law, the activities of transnational corporations and other business enterprises. These actions brought into the open long festering tensions among stakeholders involved in developing governance frameworks to manage the human rights behaviors of enterprises. The substantive positions of most stakeholders are now quite clear. They appear perhaps irreconcilable. This chapter will consider what the process of negotiating the contemplated treaty may reveal about the state of structuring governance frameworks for business and human rights either within the anticipated treaty framework or under the UNGPs. What analysis may reveal is that while the move toward the negotiation of a treaty may reveal substantial normative and conceptual failures, it also suggests some not inconsiderable successes. After setting the context of the current debate, Part II considers the normative and structural difficulties of the move toward a comprehensive business and human rights treaty. Part III then considers its benefits, both for the process of developing structures of governance for business and human rights, and its substance. Taken together what may become clear is that even were the move toward a treaty to end in failure, the movement toward more robust governance of the human rights effects of economic activity will emerge stronger.

Латинская Америка между ОАГ и СЕЛАК

The paper presents an analysis of the major trends of regional development in Latin America in the context of integration processes that occur in the Western Hemisphere at the subregional and regional levels. The main research question is: what would be the role of the oldest regional organization – the OAS – in the emerging regional architecture? Today, the OAS faces another crisis related mainly to the expansion of a post-liberal regionalism, which formed the basis of the recently emerged CELAC. Identifying the main prerequisites for the development of a new type regionalism in Latin America, comparing the OAS and CELAC, the authors attempted to determine the characteristics of both groups, their potential and prospects. As a result, it was concluded that the unconditional opposition of the OAS to CELAC is rather fallacious, because the two associations have substantive structural and functional differences; moreover, their image among officials differs significantly. Thus, there is no doubt that CELAC, as well as other Latin American groups, performs a complementary function when it comes to solving problems within Americas in general, while the OAS, as well as any other intergovernmental group, is greatly dependable on the political will of its member states.

Declaring Sexual Equality: Documents from Around the Globe

From the Seneca Falls Convention on Women’s Rights in 1848 through gatherings and organizations around the world today, feminists have systematically and collectively analyzed the character and range of existing gender-related problems in their societies, envisioned more equitable and inspiring alternatives to the status quo, and explored a variety of methods for change. This article is the first to look comparatively at a wide range of documents emanating from these meetings and groups, and to read them as one would any significant political treatise. The remarks here draw on documents from both working organizations and one-time conferences, as issued by grassroots and inter-governmental groups from local, regional, and international gatherings, that are both wide-ranging and issue-specific. While the documents are not evenly distributed over time, they do represent over a century and a half of feminist organizing. What follows includes a consideration of the scope of issues raised by feminists across time and place, and then, in greater detail, examines specific ideas about politics and education. Finally, in the search for something that might be called “feminist traditions,” the article looks especially at connections and continuities in the documents.

The right to health and medicines: the case of recent multilateral negotiations on public health, innovation and intellectual property.

The negotiations of the intergovernmental group known as the 'IGWG', undertaken by the Member States of the WHO, were the result of a deadlock in the World Health Assembly held in 2006 where the Member States of the WHO were unable to reach an agreement on what to do with the 60 recommendations in the report on 'Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property Rights submitted to the Assembly in the same year by a group of experts designated by the Director General of the WHO. The result of these negotiations was the 'Global strategy and plan of action on public health, innovation and intellectual property' which was approved by the World Health Assembly in 2008. The intention of the Global Strategy and Plan of Action (GSPOA) which was produced by the IGWG was to substantially reform the pharmaceuticals' research and development system in view of the findings that this system, whose purpose is to produce medicines for diseases which affect the greater part of the world population which lives in developing countries, had failed. The intellectual property rights imposed by the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) and the recent trade agreements could become one of the main obstacles to access to medicines. The GSPOA makes a critical analysis of this reality, and opens the door to searching for new solutions to this problem.

Hanging Together or Hanged Separately

What is the strategic role of membership in an intergovernmental group with unanimity requirements if the group negotiates with an external player in a setting with incomplete information? Being in such a group has a strategic effect compared to negotiating as a stand-alone player and reduces the demands of the outside player. Group membership lends additional bargaining power. Negotiating as a group may also cause more inefficiencies due to bargaining failure, and this may harm also the intergovernmental group. We uncover the role of preference alignment and preference independence between members of the coalition group for equilibrium payoffs and welfare effects. In this analysis, we also distinguish between coalition groups with and without side payments. Overall, coalition groups tend to perform well for the members of the coalition group in comparison to fully decentralized negotiations, particularly if the objectives of the members of the coalition group are not always perfectly aligned.

Hanging Together or Being Hung Separately: The Strategic Power of Coalitions Where Bargaining Occurs with Incomplete Information

What is the strategic role of membership in an intergovernmental group with unanimity requirements if the group negotiates with an external player in a setting with incomplete information? Being in such a group has a strategic effect compared to negotiating as a stand-alone player and reduces the demands of the outside player: being in a group lends additional bargaining power. Negotiating as a group may also cause more inefficiencies due to bargaining failure, and this might harm the intergovernmental group. We uncover the role of preference alignment and preference independence between members of the coalition group for equilibrium payoffs and welfare effects. In this analysis we also distinguish between coalition groups with and without side payments. Overall, coalition groups tend to perform well for the members of the coalition group in comparison to fully decentralized negotiations, particularly if the objectives of the members of the coalition group are not always perfectly aligned.

Solving the legal challenges of trustworthy online identity

Digital identity management is fundamental to the further development of the Internet economy. It is a foundational requirement for most substantive e-commerce transactions and other online activities.The critical importance of online identity management has led numerous governments, inter-governmental groups, and private organizations to begin work on development of viable and scalable business, technical, and legal frameworks to address the challenge of online identity. The focus of this work is on the emerging “federated” approach to identity, where an enterprise engages in online transactions in reliance on identity credentials issued by any one of several third parties, and individuals can use the same identity credential to engage in transactions with multiple organizations.This article examines this key requirement for online transactions, and explores the legal challenges that businesses must address to reap the benefits of federated identity. It begins with a general overview of digital identity management – what it is, why it is important, and generally how it works. Then, focusing on the federated identity approach, it examines the need for operating rules to ensure that such an identity system functions properly and in a manner deemed trustworthy by the participants. To that end, it identifies the key legal challenges that must be addressed to make identity systems work, and highlights some of the key issues of structuring an appropriate identity system legal framework.

Hanging Together or Being Hung Separately: The Strategic Power of Coalitions where Bargaining Occurs with Incomplete Information

What is the strategic role of membership in an intergovernmental group with unanimity requirements if the group negotiates with an external player in a setting with incomplete information? Being in such a group has a strategic effect compared to negotiating as a stand-alone player and reduces the demands of the outside player: being in a group lends additional bargaining power. Negotiating as a group may also cause more inefficiencies due to bargaining failure, and this may harm also the intergovernmental group. We uncover the role of preference alignment and preference independence between members of the coalition group for equilibrium payoffs and welfare effects. In this analysis we also distinguishing between coalition groups with and without side payments. Overall, coalition groups tend to perform well for the members of the coalition group in comparison to fully decentralized negotiations, particularly if the objectives of the members of the coalition group are not always perfectly aligned.

Dispatches

Dispatches

A Global Forum for Accountancy Debates1

This paper reports on the annual meeting in 2007 of the United Nations Intergovernmental Group of Experts on International Standards of Accounting and Reporting (UN-ISAR). The main item was a continuing discussion of the application of IFRS in a number of countries where further case studies had been done. The meeting also debated the IASB exposure draft on SMEs and compared that with the UN work in this field. A second main theme was guidance on corporate responsibility indicators in annual reports and a review of the implementation status of corporate governance disclosures. The UN group had also hosted a one-day conference on accounting in the extractive industries.

Geodetic Observations Help Scientists Understand Geohazards and Mitigate Disasters: The GGOS Contribution to GEOSS and an Observing System for Geohazards and Disaster Prevention; Frascati, Italy, 5–6 October 2007

Modern space‐geodetic observations have revolutionized our understanding of geohazards, and these observations have a great potential for further scientific discovery and applications, including early warning.To discuss this, about 50 scientists from the geodetic and geohazards communities took part in a workshop organized by the Global Geodetic Observing System (GGOS) of the International Association of Geodesy (IAG) as a contribution to the intergovernmental Group on Earth Observations (GEO). Highest‐level representatives of space agencies (European Space Agency, NASA, and Agenzia Spaziale Italiana) emphasized the fundamental importance of the geodetic reference frames for satellite missions and Earth observation. Although high, the present accuracy of these reference frames still is a key limitation in quantifying global change processes such as changes in ice sheets and sea level. Improvements of the reference frame are a pivotal step toward a better understanding of these processes and their impact on society. The representative of GEO identified GGOS as a core element in the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS), which aims to integrate Earth observations in order to better serve users in a number of societal benefit areas, including disasters.

Éducation aux risques climatiques. Premières analyses d'un dispositif pédagogique interdisciplinaire

This article raises the question of teaching pupils about the risks associated with climate change, a subject which is often debated and covered in the media. It initially looks at the consequences and challenges facing the education system and society but equally examines the effectiveness of the methods used and views held by secondary school teachers when tackling an interdisciplinary topic such as this. From September 2006 to June 2007 an interdisciplinary project based on samples taken from the media was set up following the latest work by the Intergovernmental Group of Experts on Climate Change (GIEC). The project brought together two groups of secondary school teachers to tackle the problem of educating pupils on the risks of climate change and citizenship in science class. Based upon the analysis of their course preparation and goals targeted, this paper looks at how teachers consider the sciences, the media, the learning process and the interdisciplinary methods and approaches used in the teaching of socioscientific questions.

From 'neighbourhood watch group' to community?: The case of ASEAN institutions and the pooling of sovereignty

The term 'intergovernmental neighbourhood watch group' reflects best the character of ASEAN as a grouping whose members are only loosely associated, and whose preferences for cooperation are based on the 'ASEAN way' of informality, personalised rather than institutionalised relations, and distrust of definite and legally binding commitments. This paper argues that central ASEAN mechanisms and institutions are moulded in the traditional ASEAN way and are therefore not capable of effectively promoting ASEAN's objectives of deeper economic and political integration. Most recent developments in ASEAN suggest that political disunity and nation-centred navel-gazing continue to restrict rather than enhance ASEAN's capability to pool sovereignty and to engage in institutionalised community-building. This trend reinforces the legacy of an ASEAN identity based on the delimiting rather than integrative principles of the 'ASEAN way' and leaves ASEAN with the problem of how to integrate without actually integrating.

Almost there: Another way of conceptualizing and explaining NGOs' quest for legitimacy in global politics

World politics is no longer about states interacting alone in a state of anarchy, but entails a complexity of interactions between states and a myriad of actors collectively referred to as non-state actors. Unlike non-state actors like multinational corporations (MNCs) and intergovernmental organizations (IGOs), NGOs and other civil society groups and organizations do not enjoy full legal status and are often seen as anomalies in world politics. Yet, despite their alleged anomalous status, non-state actors like NGOs, not only outnumber states, MNCs and IGOs combined, but also are increasingly becoming almost indispensable players in global agenda setting, and in promulgating and enforcing global norms. Using NGOs as an example of non-state actors, this paper argues that NGOs have become or are increasingly becoming legitimate actors contrary to traditional theories of international law and international relations. First, it is argued the ontology of world politics has changed giving rise to multiple sites of authority (MSOA) and multiple sources of legitimacy (MSOL) rendering state consent less relevant as a source of legitimization. Second, NGOs may be deemed to be acquiring legitimacy or international legal personality implicitly. Specifically, recognition of NGOs in international legal instruments, their participation in the creation and enforcement of international law particularly in the environment, human rights, humanitarian areas, and increasing cooptation by states as agents through which to channel development funds are all evidence of NGOs' growing legitimacy in the system consistent with customary international law.

Organization of the Work of the Open-ended Intergovernmental Group of Ministers or Their Representatives for the Period April-December 2001

Organization of the Work of the Open-ended Intergovernmental Group of Ministers or Their Representatives for the Period April-December 2001

International pluralism and the rule of law

Does international law have a place in a world being reshaped by globalization? Sceptics argue that international law belongs to a world order, based on relations among sovereign states, that is rapidly receding into history. But such a claim itself invites scepticism. Globalization is a journalist's term?a rough tool for making sense of what appears to be a trend toward a more integrated international economy and its attendant cultural homogenization.1 Academics who use the term link it to the proliferation of intergovernmental organizations and transnational interest groups concerned with human rights, the environment, or economic issues, and to the emergence of a new normative framework, distinct from classical ('Westphalian') international law, for 'global civil society' and 'cosmopolitan democracy'.2 Whether these trends will continue and how they might affect familiar political arrangements is not yet clear. It is possible that international law will disappear along with the pluralist system of sovereign states that the new global order is said to be replacing. It is more likely, however, that the old system will continue in a new form, and that there will be a place for international law in the new order. In this article, I discuss the character of law in the international system, on the assumption that globaliz ation will not destroy that system. But even if international law does vanish, perhaps to be replaced by a different system of world law, the issues I consider here will remain relevant because they are inherent in the idea of law itself. Democracy, if it is to be more than a tyranny of the many, requires a specific kind of legal order. It presupposes an order governed by the rule of law?one that limits as well as empowers collective decision-making.3 Because 'the rule of law' is more often invoked than understood, the meaning of that expression cannot be taken for granted. Accordingly, those who are concerned with shaping the emerging global order could profit from a careful effort to reconstruct that idea. I hope the reader will bear this in mind in working through the argument of this article. We can begin by distinguishing two modes of human association, the first a relationship based on laws governing the transactions of independent, formally

Issues of commonwealth membership

Concern to regularise the criteria for membership of the Commonwealth culminated in the Harare Declaration of 1991 which sought to codify the processes of enlargement while establishing a set of principles to guide acceptable behaviour by member states, particularly in the related fields of democracy and human rights. The admission of several countries without a direct association with Britain marked a departure from the founding principles of the Commonwealth. Notwithstanding the recommendations of an Intergovernmental group on Commonwealth Membership, it is likely that heads of government will want to retain a considerable degree of flexibility when determining applications by aspiring states. In ten years’ time it is possible that the Commonwealth may have increased to some 60 member countries, raising many questions about the effect on the organisation's essential characteristics and the spectre of it becoming the victim of its own success.