International Legal Personality of Non-Governmental Organizations

Abstract

As the international relations improved, new non-governmental entities became active and undertook certain functions. Among these entities, non-governmental organizations played important roles over the past two decades. One of the biggest barriers causing them to be inactive is the lack of international legal personality. Because they do not have legal personality they are not considered to be mature entities capable of undergoing international responsibilities. Should non-governmental organizations enjoy international legal personality their international status improves resulting in their capability of assuming responsibility if they do wrong. In this study, it is tried to prove that those organizations are capable of acquiring international legal personality. One of the main reasons why they have the above problem is that States prevent them from gaining legal personality. The solution to tackle this problem is to meet the States’ requirements because if this happens, one can be that the non-governmental organizations acquire international legal personality.

Keywords

• international legal personality
• non-governmental organizations (ngos)
• subjects of international law
• participation
• state sovereignty