Implementation of the Duty of Care by the OSCE

This contribution offers a comprehensive overview on the implementation of the Duty of Care within the OSCE. By stepping into the debate concerning the international legal personality of international organizations, the author discusses the recent practice of the OSCE and argues that, especially in the recent cases of injuries involving officials, it reacted in the international arena as an independent legal subject. Moving from this premise, the paper analyses how the OSCE, as an international subject, complies to the Duty of Care. To this purpose, the internal rules qualifying the status of the staff and the correlate mechanisms of enforcement – are illustrated. Special attention is paid to Staff Regulation 2.07 - which entitles OSCE officials to functional protection in the external relations of the Organization – and to its implementation in the recent practice of the Organization. The paper concludes that the implementation of the Duty of Care has contributed to the development of the international standing of the Organization. At the same time, for a proper realization of the Duty of Care, the OSCE and its participating States should take a further step toward recognising the legal personality of the Organization within their domestic legal order.