The Responsibility of Specialized Agencies and the United Nations for Non-Fulfillment of Mutual Obligations

Introduction. The article analyzes the issue of mutual responsibility of the United Nations and its specialized agencies. The purpose of this study is to address the issue of the responsibility incurred by specialized agencies and the United Nations for non-fulfillment of mutual obligations. The objective of the author is to highlight the mechanisms of mutual responsibility of specialized agencies and the UN by means of analyzing the constituent documents of organizations in question and agreements made between them.

Materials and methods. The materials for the study were: the UN Charter, agreements between the UN and specialized agencies, “Draft articles on the responsibility of international organizations”, as well as other documents. For the research, the author applies general scientific and specific legal methods of cognition, namely: a dialectical method; a comparative legal method; a method of systematic analysis, as well as methods of analysis, synthesis, deduction, etc.

Research results. As the result of the study, the author draws a conclusion that specialized agencies are subjects of international responsibility and they incur “broad international responsibility”; they are able to bear responsibility in compliance with the general rules of international responsibility for internationally wrongful acts committed by international organizations, as stipulated in the “Draft Articles on Responsibility of International Organizations” within the scope of their competence. We have determined a fairly high degree of dependence of specialized agencies on the United Nations with regard to the freedom to requests advisory opinions from the International Court of Justice. In our view, the lack of dispute resolution mechanisms makes specialized agencies dependent on the UN and limits their freedom. In addition, a close cooperation of such independent international organizations as the UN and specialized agencies should also include a mechanism for resolving disputes in case such disputes arise. Thus, it would be correct to include articles regulating mutual international responsibility of the UN and specialized agencies in agreements that the UN makes with specialized agencies.

Discussion and conclusions. The article drew attention to the necessity to consolidate the provisions on mutual responsibility of the United Nations and its specialized agencies. This is justified by the fact that close cooperation exists between these organizations, built on a contractual and legal basis, but the provisions on mutual responsibility of these organizations are not fixed anywhere. The peculiarities of mutual responsibility of the United Nations and the specialized agencies of the United Nations have been revealed. It is shown that despite the existence of a sufficiently large number of mechanisms for resolving international legal disputes to which international organizations can participate, to resolve disputes between the UN and specialized agencies, these mechanisms are not applicable, and therefore there is a need to include provisions on mutual responsibility in agreements between the UN and specialized agencies.

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