Articles

extremely broad. From the functional Consultation and an International Articles point of view, the Commonwealth Secretariat. aspires to playing the role of a univer- The Legal Framework of CIS sal organization, which declares itself 2. The Commonwealth of Regional Peace Operations* ready to deal with political, economic, Independent States - A Regional military, ecological, humanitarian, cul- Arrangement in the Sense of 1. The Commonwealth of tural, and other matters. Chapter VIII of the United Independent States - An While the Commonwealth's initial Nations Charter International Organization documents mentioned only some 'co- ordinating institutions', over time a Chapter VIII of the United Nations The Commonwealth of Independent well-developed and complicated sys- Charter, under the title 'Regional States (CIS), which at present consists tem of governing bodies emerged. Arrangements', defines the most of twelve of the fifteen former Soviet The supreme body is the Council of common principles of interaction republics, is not labelled an interna- the Heads of State. Others are: the between the United Nations and tional organization in its founding doc- Council of Heads of Government, regional arrangements and agencies in uments. Those who established the the Council of Foreign Ministers, the the maintenance of international peace Commonwealth wanted to emphasize Economic Court, the Commission for and security. However, the Charter that it was not a State and 'did not pos- Human Rights, and the Inter- does not list the characteristics sess any supranational powers' (Article Parliamentary Assembly. In this paper of regional arrangements. Boutros 1, Charter of the Commonwealth of I want to mention the Council of Boutros-Ghali, the former United Independent States), but they refrained Defence Ministers and the Council of Nations Secretary General, has said from defining it further. Meanwhile, Commanders of Frontier Troops. that 'co-operation between the United the CIS possesses all the formal char- They, as opposed to the other bodies, Nations and regional organizations acteristics of an international intergov- are organs of the Council of Heads of must constantly adapt to an ever- ernmental organization, including State. The Treaty on Collective changing world situation. The Charter constituent documents with fixed aims Security, signed in 1992, created a itself anticipated this need for flex- and principles, an internal organiza- separate institutional structure. ibility by not giving a precise defini- tion, and regulated membership. tion of regional arrangements and The Commonwealth was established The Commonwealth has a formalized organizations, thus enabling diverse through a series of international Charter, which may be noted for its organizations and structures to con- agreements. The Agreement on originality. Along with the simple tribute, together with the United Establishment of the Commonwealth and easily understandable concept of Nations, to the maintenance of peace of Independent States of 8 December 'Member States', the Charter intro- and security.' Other applicable UN 1991 said that the Soviet Union was duces a new term: 'Founding States'. documents do not define concrete char- about to cease to exist, and offered a If one reads the Charter literally, the acteristics of regional bodies either vague alternative to a centralized state. status of 'Founding State' does not (see, for instance, 'The Declaration on Shortly afterwards, the agreement was automatically bring with it that of CIS the Enhancement of Co-operation supplemented by the Protocol of 21 'Member State', because that status re- between the United Nations and December 1991. On the same day, the quires the implementation of a whole Regional Arrangements or Agencies Declaration was approved, in which series of conditions on the part of the in the Maintenance of International the following formula appeared for the 'Founding State'. For instance, the Peace and Security', adopted by the first time: '(...) not the State and not a Founding States and 49th Session of the General supranational formation (...)'. Finally, , which are not parties to the Assembly). Charter, take part in the functioning of on 22 January 1992, the Charter of the The CIS founding documents do not the Commonwealth and its bodies. But Commonwealth was adopted, which call the Commonwealth a regional let us consider such inconsistencies further developed and made concrete agency, and the documents themselves merely amusing constitutional inci- and, in some places, improved earlier have not been called regional arrange- dents, particularly since a different documents. ments either. However, the fact that term - 'Participant States' has long the CIS is regionally confined to the The Commonwealth of Independent been an established and accepted part northern part of the Eurasian main- States thus declared its main objec- of CIS practice. tives, principles, orientation of action, land, the common historical back- and areas of co-operation. A thorough Finally, the Commonwealth has its ground of the participating states, the analysis of these objectives would be own budget, headquarters, and perma- economic ties that still survive, and beyond the limits of this paper, but it nently functioning institutions - a other factors, all allow us to consider is appropriate to mention that they are Committee for Co-ordination and the CIS a regional arrangement in the context of Chapter VIII of the United in the territory of the former Soviet participation in the operations in gen- Nations Charter. Union. The same documents empha- eral, and those representing a national sized the importance of interaction mandate for conducting a specific Over time, the Commonwealth of between the CIS bodies and the UN operation and defining other condi- Independent States has emerged as a missions, in particular, in Abkhazia tions for participation in such an oper- proper regional organization and, and . ation of a national contingent. In my above all, as an institution for the paper I shall dwell upon the first and maintenance of international peace second groups; the third and fourth and security in the region. To begin 3. Peacekeeping Operations in the groups are to be considered in detail in with, the Statement of the Council of Commonwealth of Independent the paper of my colleague from the CIS Heads of State of 15 April 1994 States - The Legal Sources Ministry of Defence (see p. 6). on the peacekeeping operation in the area of the Georgian-Abkhazian mili- The CIS founding documents that pre- Peaceful resolution of all disputes and tary conflict, the operation was charac- ceded the CIS Charter did not cover conflicts between the participating terized as being in accordance with peacekeeping operations. However, states is one of the main objectives of Chapter VIII of the United Nations after the signing of the Agreement on the CIS, as stipulated in Article 2 of the Charter. In a special section Charter. Later, on 19 January 1996, the Establishment of the CIS and the entitled 'Prevention of Conflicts and Council of the Heads of States Protocol and Declaration, and Adoption Resolution of Disputes' particular approved a document entitled 'The of the CIS Charter, the need for special- Concept of Prevention and Settlement ized documents to regulate different attention is paid to conflicts based on ethnic or religious grounds (Article of Conflicts on the Territory of the aspects of the preparation and carrying 16). One might notice a contradiction States Participating in the Common- out of such operations became clear. wealth of Independent States'. The Charter itself already contained between those two provisions of the Charter. Article 2 clearly refers to Excerpts from this document speak references to such notions as 'collective international conflicts, while Article for themselves. For instance, the peacekeeping forces' and 'military 16 is perfectly suited to conflicts 'Concept' says: 'The Commonwealth observers', having appointed them one within the CIS states. In addition, of Independent States as a regional of the instruments for maintaining organization undertakes all necessary security within the CIS (Article 11).). Article 11, cited above, applies to steps to settle the conflicts on the terri- 'maintaining security in the Common- The legal sources applicable to the wealth', and the word 'in' may well be tory of CIS participant states in accor- regulation of peacekeeping operations dance with Chapter VIII of the United broadly interpreted as granting per- within the CIS may be divided into mission to carry out specific measures Nations Charter'. And, further on: 'In four separate groups. its conflict-settling capacity in accor- within a particular state. It must be dance with Chapter VIII of the The first group, in my opinion, com- kept in mind that the Charter calls for UN Charter, the Commonwealth of prises the provisions of the CIS military observers and collective Independent States closely co-operates Charter and, with some reservation, forces instruments for maintaining with other international organizations the regulations of the Collective security within the Commonwealth. and, above all, with the United Security Treaty. Apart from those As said earlier, Turkmenistan and Nations and the OSCE'. 'hard sources', it is possible to include Ukraine are not parties to the CIS documents that do not possess the Charter. That, however, does not pre- In the UN Secretary General's report legal force of an international treaty, vent them from taking part in activities released on the occasion of the 50th such as the aforementioned Concept of the statutory bodies and from being anniversary of the United Nations, the on Prevention and Settlement of parties to a number of agreements Commonwealth of Independent States Conflicts on the Territory of the States concluded to carry out the terms of the was mentioned among regional institu- Participating in the CIS. Charter. tions along with such bodies as the Organization for Security and Co- The second group consists of CIS acts The Concept of Prevention and operation in Europe, the Organization regulating the formation and activities Settlement of Conflicts on the of American States, and others. of the forces taking part in such Territory of the States Participating in operations. the Commonwealth of Independent UN Resolution 48/237 gave the CIS The third group is made up of specific States is not a legally binding docu- observer status at the General documents that define the mandates ment, though many of its provisions Assembly. Of particular importance for individual operations conducted on are notable for their directive style. for this paper is the fact that the UN CIS territory. The Concept numbers peacekeeping Security Council mentioned more than operations as one of the means of set- once in its resolutions the role played Finally, the fourth group consists of tling armed conflicts. However, its text by the CIS bodies in settling conflicts national acts - both those regulating clearly shows that such operations are