Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-7cvxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T04:44:13.052Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The United Nations and Specialized Agencies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 April 2017

Gustav Pollaczek
Gustav Pollaczek*
Affiliation:
Doctor of laws, University of Vienna; former official, Austrian state railways; formerly consultant, Foreign Economic Administration; now in Office of Economic Security Policy, Department of State
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

International coöperation in economic and social fields, a direct consequence of the amazing progress attained in the field of transportation and communications, has progressed during recent decades with remarkable speed. There were leagues and associations of states even in ancient times, and some of them were formed and maintained for economic as well as for political purposes, but modern economic and social cooperation extends to the most varied spheres of human activity and emphasizes more and more the interests of individuals as contrasted with those of states.1 It finds its most characteristic expression in the so-called public international unions, associations of sovereign states for the accomplishment of certain definite tasks in the economic and social field, but it is embodied also in the important work of private international associations. Organizations of the latter type have often been instrumental in bringing about important international regulations.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Journal of International Law , Volume 40 , Issue 3 , July 1946 , pp. 592 - 619
Copyright
Copyright © by the American Society of International Law 1946

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 This does not mean, of course, that modern international legislation ordinarily recognizes individuals as direct subjects of international rights. However some international conventions in the field of transportation and communications provide for and regulate the rights of individuals to submit cases arising from international transport contracts to the courts of the member states. Other exceptions, contained in the Peace Treaties concluded after World War I, and in bilateral arrangements occasioned by World War I, have been quoted by Kelsen (General Theory of Law and Slate, 1945, p. 347). These treaties contain important economic and social provisions.

2 The Charter was signed on June 26, went in effect October 24, and, by December 27, 1945, had been ratified by all fifty-one members.

3 The Covenant, which had only 26 articles as compared with the 111 articles of the Charter, treated peace and security problems mainly in Articles 8–13,15–17,19 and 23 (d), economic and social problems in Article 23 (a-c, e, f), and colonial problems in Articles 22 and 23 (b). The principal provisions on the just treatment and advancement of native populations, contained in Article 22 of the Covenant, applied only to former enemy-dominated territories. Article 77 of the Charter, on the other hand, envisages the possibility that territories may be placed voluntarily under the trusteeship system by states responsible for their administration.

4 Both Assembly (Article 3 (3)) and Council (Article 4 (4)) of the League were expressly empowered to deal at their meetings “with any matter within the sphere of action of the League or affecting the peace of the world.” The French version used the legal term “ connaitre de toute question.”

5 See in particular Articles 15 and 16 of the Covenant.

6 See Article 5 of the Covenant, also, for exceptions from this rule.

7 Lord Balfour declared correctly (Dictionnaire Diplomatique, Paris, 1933, Vol. II, p. 778, English translation by the present writer): “It seems impossible to draw a definite line of demarcation between the two organs of the League established by the Covenant. Not only do their functions overlap, but upon the points of greatest importance they are absolutely identical.” The noted British statesman drew the surprising conclusion: “The less one seeks to define in explicit terms the functions bestowed respectively upon the Council and the Assembly, the more one does for the good of the League. A group of exact formulas would attract undue attention to the uncertainties (doubtless left by intention) in the Covenant, and would give rise to judicial controversies which would entirely destroy the usefulness of the League. Hence”—continued the former premier—“I recommended that the Council should abstain from initiating any action likely to draw attention to the conflicts of authority which might develop—although unlikely to do so—on account of the terms of the Covenant. In the absence of clear terms Lord Balfour relied, somewhat optimistically, on “tact, bon sens, and tolérance mutuelle.”

8 According to their rules of procedure the Assembly met at least once in a year, while four annual meetings were foreseen for the Council. See Harley, J. E., Documentary Textbook on International Relations, 1934, pp. 82 and 86.

9 Article 28 of the Charter, it is true, says rather cautiously that the Security Council ”shall be so organized as to be able to function continuously.”

10 In perusing the minutes of international conferences it is sometimes hard to decide whether objections to international legislation, based on alleged violations of sovereign rights, are genuine though mistaken, or merely prompted by the desire to show the objectors’ patriotic concern. Thus when the long overdue international rules on responsibility for collisions of inland navigation vessels were elaborated under the sponsorship of the League, the Yugoslav delegates objected suddenly that the treaty, once in force, would be but the first step to the “internationalization of their national waters” (see League of Nations Publications, Geneva, 1931, VIII. 13, p. 250). The convention was consequently denatured by an additional “special protocol.” It never went into force.

11 See below, p. 615.

12 The General Assembly elects the six non-permanent members of the Security Council (Article 23; only the “big five” are permanent members), all the eighteen members of the Economic and Social Council (Article 61) and half of the members of the Trusteeship Council (Article 86). Each member is to have one representative.

13 Especially in Chapter VII (Articles 39–51; action with respect to threats to the peace, breaches of the peace and acts of aggression).

14 In the case of the prevention of the traffic in women and children, and in opium and other dangerous drugs (Article 23c), and of the trade in arms and ammunition with certain countries (Article 23d, a security measure) the members recognized the authority of the League. They assumed, on the other hand, individual responsibility for the promotion of “fair and humane conditions of labor” (Article 23a) and of “freedom of communications and of transit and equitable treatment for the commerce of all members of the League” (Article 23e), and for the “prevention and control of disease” (Article 23f). The provisions of the Covenant were, incidentally, by far more specific than those of the Charter but, considering the elastic formulas used in Article 23, were not really binding.

15 The order in which the various spheres of activity have been enumerated does not imply any attempt at classifying them according to their importance. The greatest practical significance must probably be attributed to several public international unions which are active in the field of transportation and communications.

16 Some of these organizations, such as the International Law Association or the International Chamber of Commerce, were active in many different sectors of international life and legislation. A quarterly bulletin, published by the League of Nations, listed the periodical meetings of the more important among these international associations.

17 See below, p. 609.

18 Same.

19 United States, Treaty Series, No. 484; Harley, p. 290.

20 One of these agreements was the Convention on the Organization of the Fight against Locusts, of Rome, October 31, 1920 ( Hudson, M. O., International Legislation, Vol. I, p. 27 Google Scholar). The contracting states promised to take measures necessary for fighting locusts which might damage the crops of neighboring states (susceptibles de nuire aux cultures des Etats voisins) and recognized the Institute as their official center of documentation and information. This was an interesting attempt to proceed somewhat abruptly to the universal regulation of a problem which—although possibly universal itself—would seem to call primarily for concerted action by the countries of individual geographic areas. The convention might nevertheless have attained its purpose had it been universally accepted. But ten years after its conclusion it had been ratified only by a small number of states most of which were separated by the seven seas.

In 1926, cooperation in the same field was found necessary by some of the Levantine countries (Palestine, Transjordania, Iraq, Turkey and Syria). But instead of adhering to the Convention of 1920 they concluded a new agreement “creating the International Bureau of Locusts” (see Hudson, Vol. 3, p. 1888 and p. 1891). The Bureau also collects information and submits proposals, but has been given more concrete responsibilities than the Institute, though in a more specialized field; the convention is, incidentally, open to the adherence of other states without regard to their geographic position.

21 Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Report of the First Session of the Conference held at the City of Quebec, Canada, October 16 to November 1,1945, Washington, 1946, p. ix. See also, p. 55, the recommendation to wind up the affairs of the International Institute of Agriculture, to transfer its library, archives, and property to the FAO and to substitute FAO for the Institute “in the execution of the provisions of the international conventions which attribute functions to the Institute.”

22 Namely the Paris institute by the French Government and the Rome institutes by the Italian Government. Like many other international institutions the institutes received occasional support from American foundations; see, e.g., the League Report on the Paris Institute for 1936, Paris, 1937, p. 12.

23 Geneva, , October 11, 1933, Hudson, Vol. VI, p. 456 Google Scholar. The treaty came into force on January 15, 1935.

24 Convention concerning Facilities for Educational and Publicity Films, Aires, Buenos, December 23, 1936, Hudson, Vol. VII, p. 611 Google Scholar. The treaty came into force on April 1, 1938.

25 In particular the Convention concerning the Use of Broadcasting in the Cause of Peace, Geneva, September 23, 1936, Hudson, Vol. VII, p. 409. The treaty came into force on April 2, 1938.

26 See the League Report on the Institute for 1937, Paris, 1938, p. 70. Apart from its valuable “collections” (series of books: “Conversations,” “Open Letters Series,” “Intellectual Cooperation Series”), the Institute published the following periodicals: Cooperation Intelleduelle (monthly); Museion and its Supplement, organ of the International Museums Office (monthly); Index Translationum (quarterly); Scientific Museums (monthly); Students Abroad (twice a year); Bulletin de VOffice International des Instituts d’ArcMologie et de l’Histoire de l’Art (three times a year); Bulletin for University Relations.

27 The Institute of International Education, New York, a private national association with international affiliations, represents another type of internationally important organizations. The Institute was active in the international exchange of students which, as is well known, was facilitated by the Rhodes Scholarships, and by those granted by the Guggenheim Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

28 The first conference for the elaboration of this treaty took place in 1878, but the Convention went into force only on January 1, 1892. It might be argued that, had a permanent international agency for the preparation of the Convention been established by the conference of 1878, an agreement might have been reached at an earlier date. But the method of preparing international legislation was a different one in this case: the work was done not through the instrumentality of a permanent organ, but by means of ensuing conferences which, step by step, cleared the way of obstacles.

29 Congressional Record, Vol. 91, p. 1062.

30 See Address by Assistant Secretary of State Clayton at the semi-annual meeting of the Academy of Political Science, New York, April 11, 1946 (State Department Press Release No. 244, p. 6), and the analysis of the “Proposals” in The New York Times of December 7, 1945, p. 14.

31 For example the public international union for the Technical Unity of Railroads, formed by the European countries between the Spanish and Russian borders, has no international bureau. (The main charter of this union entered into force in 1882, and amended versions became effective in 1886, 1907, 1914 and 1939; see the latest text in Bulletin des Transports Internationaux, Berne, 1940, Annexe.) Certain preparatory and research tasks have been entrusted to the International Railway Union, Paris, a private international association.

32 Thus certain tasks, frequently performed by international bureaus were entrusted to Belgium in the case of the Bills of Lading Convention of 1924, to France in the case of the Warsaw Private Air Law Convention of 1929, and to Great Britain in the case of the Safety of Life at Sea Convention of 1929.

33 Final Act of December 7, 1944, Recommendation No. VII.

34 This abbreviation has, however, not always been used, for instance not in Article 96 (2) of the Charter.

35 See the example given in note 10, above.

36 The jurisdiction of the Central Office (see Manley 0. Hudson and Louis B. Sohn, “ Fifty Years of Arbitration in the Union of International Transport by Rail,” this Journal, Vol. 37 (1943), p. 597) and its right to strike railway lines from the official list (see Article 57d and Annexe VI, Article 3 of the Convention) become operative only in conflicts between camera belonging to different countries. (However the most important of these carriers are, in fact, government agencies.) Litigations between the Governments regarding the convention are subject to the procedure provided for in general or special treaties of arbitration. Litigations between carriers and shippers are judged by the courts of the member states according to the rules laid down in the convention.

37 This obligation exists for the members of the ILO. See below, p. 608.

38 “Proposals between meetings” (see Article 19 of the Cairo Convention of 1934), “preparatory commissions,” and especially the insertion in the text of the convention of the date of its effectiveness. “This,” remarked Evaristo Garbani-Nerini, Director of the Universal Postal Union from 1925 to 1937, “is one of the most characteristic peculiarities of our institution. … It follows that the member states very frequently apply the new conventions … for months and years before ratifying them … the signature is equal to a provisional ratification … valid up to the moment where a declaration to the contrary has been made” (Les bases, I’organization et le développemeni de l’Union Postale Universelle, 1935, p. 15).

39 See this writer’s study, “International Legislation in the Field of Transportation,” this Journal, Vol. 38 (1944), p. 581, on the “Commission of Experts.”

40 The International Committee on Aerial Navigation (CINA), established by the Convention on the Regulation of Aerial Navigation of Paris, October 13,1919, had broad legislative powers. See Anne Pignochet, L’Organisme le plus évolué du droit international, Paris, 1936.

41 See Pignochet, note 40.

42 See Hackworth, G., Digest of International Law, Washington, 1940–44, Vol. IV, p. 363 Google Scholar.

43 See Hudson, Manley O., “Aviation and International Law,” in this Journal , Vol. 24 (1930), p. 234 Google Scholar, and Cassidy, Louis C., in “Does the Havana Aerial Convention Fulfill a Need?”, Air Law Review, 1931, p. 42 Google Scholar.

44 See note 39.

45 Article 90 of the Chicago Convention. By April 15, 1946, the Convention—which, according to Article 91, as soon as ratified or adhered to by twenty-six States, shall come into force among them on the thirtieth day after deposit of the twenty-sixth instrument—had been ratified by Canada, China, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru, Poland, and Turkey (Department of State Press Release No. 251).

46 Article 94 of the Chicago Convention.

47 See note 21 on the FAO and note 65 on the UNESCO.

48 Article 21 of the Covenant:

Nothing in this Covenant shall be deemed to affect the validity of international engagements, such as treaties of arbitration or regional understandings like the Monroe Doctrine for securing the maintenance of peace.

was expanded into Chapter VIII of the Charter (Regional Arrangements, see below, p. 614).

49 See below, p. 610.

50 In its January, 1946, session the Economic and Social Council established a Commission on Human Rights, with a Sub-Commission on the Status of Women; an Economic and Employment Commission to have three Sub-Commissions, on Employment, Balance of Payments, and Economic Development, respectively; a Temporary Social Commission; a Statistical Commission; a Temporary Transportation and Communications Commission; and a Commission on Narcotic Drugs. It decided to establish at its next session a Demographic Commission, a Fiscal Commission, and a Coordination Commission. It also established Committees on Refugees, on Specialized Agencies, on Non-Governmental Organizations, and the necessary Preparatory Committees in connection with forthcoming functional conferences. (See “The United States and the United Nations,” Report of the U. S. Delegation to the First Part of the First Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations, London, England. January 10-February 14, 1946.)

51 “Each of the Members undertakes that it will, within the period of one year at most from the closing of the session of the Conference, or if it is impossible owing to exceptional circumstances to do so within the period of one year, then at the earliest practicable moment and in no case later than eighteen months from the closing of the session of the Conference, bring the recommendation or draft convention before the authority or authorities within whose competence the matter lies, for the enactment of legislation or other action” (Article 19 (5) of the Constitution of the International Labor Organization).

52 See text of Article 55 on p. 596, above.

53 See above, p. 600.

54 See Report of the Preparatory Commission of the United Nations, December 23, 1945, Chapter III, Section 5.

55 On the other hand a specialized agency need not necessarily lose its independence when it accepts the financial aid of the UN. Thus, the Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization of the United Nations (UNESCO) apparently expects to obtain the financial backing of the UN while, at the same time, retaining its autonomy “within the fields of its competence” (Article X of the Constitution of the UNESCO).

56 See the example given above, p. 599, or, e.g., Monthly Bulletin of Agricultural Science and Practice, 1939, No. 7 (first blue page) on cooperation between the International Agricultural Institute and the Permanent Agricultural Commission of the ILO, etc.

57 In the years following World War I, and in the decade before the outbreak of World War II many Continental countries adopted stringent currency control measures. Many of these regulations violated the rules of the International Convention on the Transport of Goods by Rail (in particular the provisions on the payment of freight by consignor or consignee, on cash advances, etc.). The Conferences of Revision of Berne (1923) and Rome (1933) took cognizance of the fact that certain of their members put commerce into strait jackets in order to protect their currencies, and that other members might wish to protect themselves against the protective measures devised by their partners. The far reaching concessions made by both conferences obviously did not satisfy all the member states, and new infringements on the treaty rules occurred. These are matters to be negotiated between international transportation and currency agencies.

58 See text of Article 55 on p. 596, above.

59 See above, p. 599.

60 This is the general rule. But according to Article 82 certain areas of a trust territory may be declared as “strategic,” and in these areas all functions of the UN shall be exercised by the Security Council (Article 83 (1)). This Council shall, however,

subject to the provisions of the trusteeship agreements and without prejudice to security considerations, avail itself of the assistance of the Trusteeship Council to perform those functions of the United Nations under the trusteeship system relating to political, economic, social, and educational matters in the strategic areas (Article 83 (3)).

It might have been preferable to mention also the Economic and Social Council and the specialized agencies. There is nothing to prevent the Trusteeship Council from consulting them in turn (Article 91), but this procedure seems somewhat cumbersome.

61 See above, p. 601.

62 See Kirk, Grayson and Chamberlain, Lawrence H., “The Organization of the San Francisco Conference,” in Political Science Quarterly, Vol. IX, No. 3 (September 1945), p. 321 CrossRefGoogle Scholar (esp. p. 334–339).

63 For an even more liberal interpretation of Article 57 see Report of the Preparatory Commission of the United Nations, December 23, 1945, Chapter III, Section 5, p. 40.—On the project of setting up a European subcommission of the Economic and Social Council see Be rtram D. Hulen in The New York Times, April 25, 1946, p. 3.

64 See The New York Times, August 10, 1945, p. 12.

65 Report of the Preparatory Commission of the United Nations, December 23, 1945, Chapter III, Section 5, No. 19 (p. 43).

66 Any newspaper file would yield abundant proof. Of course one should not judge too severely the expert in various fields who, in a letter addressed to, and published by, a prominent newspaper, apparently mistook the Universal Postal Union for an international association of stamp-collectors, or the news agency which, not so long ago, confused the Economic and Social Council and the Trusteeship Council of 'the UN. Such mistakes are a direct consequence of the slight attention paid to international legislation in economic and social fields. Speaking of the international bodies, which are the main subject of this study, Leonard S. Woolf said correctly: “These associations are sometimes called public international unions, and in standard works on international law a few meagre details about them will be found under such headings as international unions, international offices, international commissions, etc.” (International Government, 1916 and 1929, p. 157). Even the meagre details are, by the way, frequently misleading. Woolf’s judgment still holds true. Even an otherwise excellent book (Edith Wynner and Georgia Lloyd, Searchlight on Peace Plans, 1944) has little space (one page out of 532) for the public international unions by which, aocording to the authors’ own statement (p. 395) “organized, functioning world government, to provide continuous legislation on a world scale is foreshadowed.” See also C. G. Fenwick’s remarks in this Journal, Vol. 29 (1935), p. 284.

67 According to the Secretary to the Superintendent of Schools, the City of New York considers the teaching of the Charter, copies of which will be available in all schools, one of its major new educational projects: The New York Times, September 7, 1945, p. 25.

68 See Final Act of November 16, 1945.

69 See above, p. 599.

70 See above, p. 610.