By David Suter
The rules adopted for the SCO are revealing of Beijing’s attitude towards international law in general.
Previous articles in The Diplomat have explored the limited realpolitik results of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) (see here, here, here, here, here and here). But the SCO also functions as a testing ground for China in international rule setting. A closer look at adopted SCO documents has the potential to shed some light on China’s attitude towards international law in general.
At first glance, the SCO is as good an international organization as any. Like the United Nations (UN), it has a Charter stating that it is a subject of international law endowed with international legal personality. Adopted in 2002, the SCO Charter also creates the necessary organs: a Secretariat and a Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (SCO RATS) as the permanent organs, and a Council of Heads of State (HoS), Heads of Government (HoG), Foreign Ministers, National Coordinators (NC), and Meetings of the Heads of Department as the meeting organs. The institutional set-up of the SCO was further fleshed out with a 2002 SCO RATS Agreement, a Budget Agreement, various internal regulations adopted in 2003, and a 2004 Immunities Convention.
However, closer analysis reveals a significant lack of substance behind this presentable façade. The 2004 SCO Immunities Convention is more or less a copy of the 1946 UN General Convention on Privileges and Immunities, with the crucial difference that the SCO is not a party in its own right to this instrument. The SCO has therefore no standing in disputes where its own immunity or the immunity of its personnel is at stake. Also, the permanent organs of the SCO have no right to invite their own guests who would then enjoy free entry and immunity during their visit (the so-called jus missionis). As a result, guests invited to the SCO Secretariat in Beijing are by default also the guests of the People’s Republic. The same holds true for the SCO RATS in Uzbekistan.
The development of the SCO is further curtailed by its meager budget. Available figures do not exceed $5 million per year. This sum is mainly to cover the wages of the approximately 60 staff working in the Secretariat and in the SCO RATS. As a result, the most prominent appearances of the SCO, the annual HoS summits and joint military anti-terrorist operations, are paid for by the member states directly. The organization enjoys no meaningful financial autonomy vis-à-vis its member states.
Read the full story at The Diplomat