YEARBOOK OF INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

The Yearbook attempts to cover all “international organizations”, according to a broad range of criteria. It therefore includes many bodies that may be perceived as not being fully international, or as not being organizations as such, or as not being of sufficient significance to merit inclusion. Such bodies are nevertheless included.

Editorial experience has shown that it is useful to take seven aspects of organizational life as indicators of the eligibility of an organization: aims; membership; structure; officers; finance; relations with other organizations; and activities.

The editors have developed a hierarchical typology to assist users in evaluating the level of internationality of an organization. Each organization is assigned to one of 15 types, designated by an upper case letter. All of these types include both intergovernmental and non-governmental international organizations. For more information about the hierarchical typology, see Type 1.

In summary, the Yearbook includes the following types of organziations:

• Federations of international organizations and other organizations with a wide geographical distribution of membership
• Regional bodies covering at least three countries within one continental or sub-continental region
• Subsidiary autonomous and internal organizations of larger organizations
• Non-formal, unconventional or unusual organizations (i.e., foundations, banks, networks, etc.)
• Internationally oriented national organizations
• Inactive or dissolved organizations
• Religious orders, fraternities, and secular institutes
• Autonomous conference series
• Multilateral treaties and agreements

Censorship

The editors are at times subject to pressure from some international bodies to suppress certain categories of information. In most cases, the editors resist these pressures; in some cases, the entry is reworded to respect the concern of the body in question. No entries have been eliminated as a result of such pressure.

Coverage

The Yearbook attempts to cover all “international organizations”, according to a broad range of criteria. It therefore includes many bodies that may be perceived, according to narrower definitions, as not being fully international or as not being of sufficient significance to merit inclusion. Such bodies are nevertheless included, so as to enable users to make their own evaluation in the light of their own criteria. For some users, these bodies may even be of greater interest.

Editorial experience has shown that it is useful to take seven aspects of organizational life as indicators of the eligibility of an organization: aims; membership; structure; officers; finance; relations with other organizations; and activities.

The editors are sensitive to the existence of forms of social organization that may substitute for the creation of a more formal conventional organization. A conference series with no continuing committee is one example. Such "organizations" are generally included in one of the Special Types (see Type 1).

The definition of profit-making, and the extent to which any non-profit organization may incidentally or deliberately make a profit as defined by particular tax regimes, cannot be unambiguously resolved. This grey area has been treated in a variety of ways with the sensitivity it merits. The editors are attentive to the non-profit objectives of an organization registered under for-profit legal status. Especially problematic are the professional and trade organizations whose existence is in part justified, in their members’ eyes, by the extent to which they defend or improve the members' income.

The editors acknowledge that some types of organization may be totally absent or underreported within the database, for example virtual organizations associated with the internet (including those of otherwise conventional structure, but also “usenets”, web discussion groups, “listserv” communities etc), criminal networks, cartels and price-fixing rings, mercenarygroups, spy and undercover organizations, terrorist organizations, secret societies, religious sects, family and fraternity groups, bodies with no formal structure or fixed address or associations essentially constituted by a journal subscribership. The editors have always given priority to bodies that are not focused on, or deriving from, a particular country. This may be construed as under-reporting of certain forms of aid, missionary activity, language and cultural activities, etc. The editors have traditionally stressed the importance of involvement of three countries on a more-or-less equal footing, to the exclusion of bilateral international bodies and those in which a particular country is dominant. Indications of “internationality” are distribution of board members, location of meetings, rotation of secretariat, source of finance in addition to membership and other such relevant information.

Although in many ways under-reported, and not included in the categories of conventional international bodies, some level of recognition is given to these organization forms in the types clustered under “Other International Bodies” and “Special Types”.

The editors have developed a hierarchical typology to assist users in evaluating the level of internationality of an organization. Each organization is assigned to one of 15 types, designated by an upper case letter. All of these types include both intergovernmental and non-governmental international organizations. For more information about the hierarchical typology, see Type 1.

In summary, the Yearbook includes the following types of organziations:

• Federations of international organizations and other organizations with a wide geographical distribution of membership
• Regional bodies covering at least three countries within one continental or sub-continental region
• Subsidiary autonomous and internal organizations of larger organizations
• Non-formal, unconventional or unusual organizations (i.e., foundations, banks, networks, etc.)
• Internationally oriented national organizations
• Inactive or dissolved organizations
• Religious orders, fraternities, and secular institutes
• Autonomous conference series
• Multilateral treaties and agreements

The central concern of the Yearbook has always been that of maintaining comprehensive coverage of international bodies that correspond to its criteria of Types A to D (see Type I). The coverage of types E to G is not comprehensive for the following reasons:

• Type E: commissions of international bodies. Only those cited by other bodies, or which appear to have some degree of independent “outer-directed” action are included. A deliberate search for them is not usually made. Less independent bodies are classified as Type K; the least independent are cited only in the “mother” organization’s entry.
• Type F: new forms of organization, organizational experiments and organizational substitutes. Forms most frequently arising in recent years have been networks and, currently, bodies existing only on internet. The emergence of such “bodies” is a constant and useful challenge to any selection criteria. Type F has also been used as a transitional category: it previously contained religious orders (now Type R), and meeting series (now Type S). It currently holds many financing and funding organizations and others with a self-styled structure.
• Type G: national bodies perceived as “internationally active” by international organizations. Clearly it is difficult to define the limits in such a case. In practice, only those which appear international (due to their name or preoccupations), or which are cited with other international bodies, are included. A deliberate search for them is not made.

Censorship

Users should be aware that the editors are subject to pressure from some international bodies to suppress certain categories of information.

Reasons given include:

1. the body does not belong with “international organizations”, possibly because it is an informal network (personal not public) or because it is in some way transcendental to the mundane organization of the international community (as is the case of certain religious bodies);
2. the body is of “no possible interest” to anyone else (as is the case of some staff associations of major intergovernmental organizations);
3. mention of the body, or of its normal relationships, attracts unwelcome attention (as in the case of some military bodies in countries where terrorism is a problem);
4. mention of membership of the body may subject members to victimization (as is the case of trade unions with members in countries with severe human rights problems);
5. organizations wish to avoid unsolicited mail (especially “junk mail”). In most cases, the editors resist these pressures; in some cases, the entry is reworded to respect the concern of the body in question. No entries have been eliminated as a result of such pressure.