Immunity of International Non-governmental Organizations: Inconsistency in International Practice and Doctrine

The role of international non-governmental organizations has been promoted in the last half-century, and the scope of their activities has been expanded. Despite the fact that non-governmental organizations are recognized as the subsidiary subjects of international law and their establishment and formation are conducted by private persons and according to the domestic laws of countries, the important status of some of them in the international community has raised many legal issues. One of the issues that will be discussed in this article is whether the aforementioned organizations, similar to international organizations enjoy immunity based on having international legal personality, functionalism or structuralism? As the research hypothesis, it is suggested that for granting immunity to non-governmental organizations, we observe a selective practice of governments toward a few organizations, and the basis of immunity is also explained on a new approach consisting of functionalism and structuralism doctrines. Thus, mixed administration or financing, performing a mission related to the international public interests and official recognition through a multilateral treaty or frequent resolutions of an international governmental organization, are the indicators for granting immunity.