INTRODUCTION

When one of their members fails to fulfil its obligations, international organizations (IOs) may adopt institutional sanctions in order to put pressure on it and bring it back into the ranks. Typically, institutional sanctions are provided for in the constitutive instruments of IOs and consist in depriving the member of its rights, privileges and benefits stemming from membership.

The majority of constitutive instruments envision sanctions in the event of non-fulfilment of financial obligations. At times, privative measures can be adopted for other defaults, say for breach of the fundamental principles and values of the IO or any other obligations set out in the constitutive instruments.

In disciplining the errant member, an IO may resort to a broad spectrum of measures varying from the most serious to the least serious. At one end of the scale, one finds the expulsion of the member or the request to withdraw (compulsory withdrawal), as stipulated, for example, in Art. 6 of the UN Charter and Art. XXVI(c) of the Articles of Agreement of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), respectively. Less severe than expulsion, the temporary suspension of all privileges and rights of the member is a distinctive measure laid down in a number of statutory provisions, for instance under Art. 31 of the World Meteorological Organization Constitution.