NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL CIVIL SERVICE

Differences between National and International Civil Service

 Though national and international administrations may appear to be similar from a specifically functional vieWpoint, the two differ considerably in terms of source, nature and application of authority The government of a country is representative of its citizens (at least nationally) whereas an international organisation is composed of sovereign, independent states which have voluntarily agreed to come together to pursue certain common objectives.

Secondly, national civil servants deal only with the citizens of their respective states, while international civil servants deal with nation states.

Thirdly, in a nation-state the owers of different branches of government are clearly defined 1n a constitu on, the provisions of which are binding on individual citizens. An international organisation, on the on the other hand, depends for the functioning of its laws virtually on the moral binding of member states to respect its policies as stated 1n the Charter. The executive, legislature and the judiciary in an international organisation are not equivalent in their powers to their national counterparts. There is no executive in the strict sense in an international organisation; certain organisations are allocated Specific duties to carry out in Specific situations by superior policy making organisations, like the General Assembly or the 

Security Council. Most jurists agree that the resolutions and recommendations of the General Assembly (which is the rough equivalent of a national legislature) do not generally impose legal obligations upon member states; similarly, the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice is narrowly limited and its opinions are not binding, while the judiciary at the national level has a far more extensive and effective jurisdiction and its opinions have a binding force. .
      The primary concern of an international civil service is with the putting into effect of the deliberations and recommendations of international organisations with respect to the promotion of the stated purposes of the respective organisations. The national civil service administers national laws undertaking direct administrative responsibility. 

       A national civil servant administers a single political community, while an international civil servant administers international organisations which represent a series of contracts between many diverse states.

       Finally, the service conditions of an international civil service are based on contractual relations, rather than on an obligatory basis, as in the case of a national civil service. The legal relationship between national civil servants and their employer, the state, stands on an entirely different footing, that is, it is subject to the sovereignty of the state as compared to the contracting parties in international employment. The international civil service lacks many features of its national counterpart, such as a ”Central administrative authority, Central recruitment ”control, Verified service conditions, Central appeals machinery,” in spite of the efforts of the ICSAB (International Civil Service Advisory Board) and ICSC (International Civil Service Commission) established to ensure common service conditions for the various UN bodies. 

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Characteristics of an International Bureaucracy 

While focussing on the above differences, the specific characteristics of an international bureaucracy need to be highlighted. The uneven history of the evolution of the international civil service makes a clear definition of international bureaucrats difficult. Suzanne Basdevant has defined international officials in the following manner: ”International officials are persons who, on the basis of an international treaty constituting a particular international community, or by an organ of it, and are under its control to exercise, in a continuous way, functions in the interest of this particular international community, and who are subject to a particular personal status.” Thus, international civil servants are full-time employees of an international organisation, to which they owe their loyalty, and from which they draw their salaries and other benefits.

The League of Nations Staff Regulations stipulated that the tlons were officials of the Secretariat of the League Nation were exclusively international officials. A similar provision was made in the United Nations Staff Regulations. In accordance With the 

Convention on Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations, the General Assembly of the United Nations, determined that staff members of the UN, other than those who were recruited locally and assigned to hourly rates, were to be considered as‘UN officials. This definition was subsequently modified to include all regularly employed staff members of the UN, except those under contract . A similar  defimtlon 18 used in the Specialised Agencies of the UN.