The Exclusion of States from Regional Organisations: Recent Developments
Introduction
International organisations in the Americas, Africa and the Pacific have all recently excluded states from membership as a result of violations of democracy. Policies and practices defining membership on the basis of a state’s human rights and democratic record have been adopted by the African Union (AU), the Organization of American States (OAS), the Pacific Islands Forum, and regional economic communities, such as the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). Furthermore, in 2007 ASEAN adopted the Charter of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, a document which leaves open the possibility that future membership decisions will be conditioned on human rights and democracy criteria.
This seminar explored the recent practice of regional organisations outside Europe in developing standards for determining whether a member state should be excluded. It highlighted the commonality amongst a diverse range of organisations in articulating exclusion criteria and also raised questions about the suitability of suspension as a method of dealing with breaches of human rights and democracy.
About the Speaker
Dr Alison Duxbury is an Associate Professor at the Melbourne Law School. She holds bachelor degrees in Arts and Laws (Hons) and a PhD from the University of Melbourne, and a Master of Law from the University of Cambridge. After completing Articles at Blake Dawson Waldron she was admitted to practice in the Supreme Court of Victoria in 1994. Prior to joining the Law Faculty at the University of Melbourne she worked at Monash University and the London office of Clifford Chance. Alison is a member of the Australian Red Cross International Humanitarian Law Committee (Vic Division), the Asia Pacific Centre for Military Law, and the International Advisory Commission of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative. Alison has held visiting fellowships at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies in London and at the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law at Cambridge. She has undertaken advice work in the areas of international law and human rights and has recently completed a book on the participation of states in international organisations to be published by Cambridge University Press.
