Suchergebnisse

The report of the Director-General on the work of the International Refugee Organization since July 1,1948 stated that by December 1948, IRO had received 1,000,000 applications for assistance. The main factors contributing to the high rate of intake were: 1) the large number of applications from persons who, employed in Germany and Austria, had not previously required IRO assistance, but who, as a result of widespread unemployment appearing immediately after the currency reforms, were unable to support themselves or their families; and 2) the influx of new refugees from eastern Europe. The administrative restriction upon the admission of new cases only on proof of hardship had been maintained. The figure for new admissions to care and maintenance had reached an average of 8,000 per month, including approximately 1,100 births. Despite a high rate of new admissions, the total number of refugees receiving care and maintenance, rather than simply help in resettlement or repatriation, had diminished at a rate of 10,000 or more per month. Of the major national or ethnic groups, the Jewish group had declined most rapidly, reflecting principally departures for Israel. In addition to those persons receiving care and maintenance, there were 191,232 refugees registered for IRO services. This brought to a total 715,091 persons receiving IRO assistance at the end of December 1948.

General Agreement on Tariffs and TradeThe ninth session of the thirty-four contracting parties to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade opened in Geneva on October 28, 1954, under the chairmanship of Mr. L. Dana Wilgress (Canada). A number of non-member states and inter-governmental organizations sent observers to the session, whose work was divided into two parts: discussion of the normal business of GATT, which extended from October 28 through November 7, and consideration of proposals for the revision of GATT, which would expire in mid-1955, and for transforming it into a more permanent organization.

Perhaps the single most important items of news concerning international organizations since my last column was the official notification by the U.S. Government late in December 1983 of its intention to withdraw from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) at the end of 1984. Numerous articles and editorial pieces have appeared in the press since that time. According to news accounts the U.S. National Commission for UNESCO, a nongovernmental advisory body, adopted a resolution December 16 at its annual meeting stating that continued U.S. membership in UNESCO "… is in the national interest," but as far as the author can determine the text of the resolution, adopted by a 41 to 8 vote, has not been made public. It is my understanding that a 700-page report evaluating U.S. participation in UNESCO has been prepared and an executive summary is to be published by the State Department. From its origins UNESCO has been one of the most controversial and complex of the organizations within the United Nations system of organizations as shown in a new reference work on the Organization, Guide to UNESCO, by Peter I. Hajnal of the University of Toronto library staff. The reader's attention is directed to a review of the Guide published in this issue. Another event highlighted in the press was the failure of the December 1983 meeting of the European Council of Ministers in Athens to come to any agreement on reform of the European Community's Common Agricultural Policy and the 1984 Community budget. The meeting broke up without even agreeing on a final communique. In a statement issued December 7 the Commission of the European Community referred to the gravity of the situation but stated that "… the failure of the European Council session is not the failure of the Community, let alone the failure of a historical process that is to ensure the prosperity and strength of Europe." (European Community News no. 23, December 9, 1983.) Another noteworthy event late in 1983 was the November 14 announcement by the Secretary-General of the Organization of American States (OAS), Alejandro Orfila, of his intention to resign. In a very outspoken speech, the OAS Secretary-General stated "… that the OAS has been detached from, or only tangentially involved in, many of the major issues that affect the present and determine the future of America." (Washington Post, November 22, 1983.) At the United Nations discouragement also has been expressed increasingly at the inability of the Organization to do its first job of preserving peace. Upon his retirement from the UN in November 1983, Philippine Foreign Minister Carlos Romulo, head of his delegation since the founding conference in 1945, said "the world has changed [since then] but we have not changed enough. Human perspective is still transfixed on the precious but inadequate loyalties of home and country when it needs, at a time when men aim for the stars, to encompass at least the human family on a tiny planet, circling a minor sun." (Quoted by Flora Lewis, New York Times, December 27, 1983.) In a New Year's message, the President of the 38th UN General Assembly, Jorge Illueca of Panama, called for an infusion "… of new energy into the machinery of the United Nations." At the same time, he noted that our fate depends on "… human geography more than physical geography," and he urged "… these human nucleii of diverse cultures" to come together so that "… we the peoples of the world, may strengthen our will to save mankind from the scourge of war." (United Nations Weekly News Summary WS/1161, January 6, 1984.)

This special issue seeks to move forward the development of an empirical research agenda that takes seriously the complexity of how international organizations (IOs) function and the need to study that complexity at all levels of analysis by using robust research tools. We advocate for a broad empirical research approach that molds and sharpens theories about IOs by conducting systematic tests in large-sample environments. Two themes create a common thread throughout this issue. First, shifting the focus from whether IOs matter to how they work requires acknowledgment of the contingency of cause and effect. A second common thread lies in the authors' treatment of IO membership as an aggregate phenomenon—that is, as a set of institutions and relationships evolving over time and with many members rather than as a single organization.

Report of the Director-GeneralThe annual report of the Director-General (Morse) of the International Labor Organization (ILO) to the 38th session of the ILO Conference had a special theme, that of labor-management relations in thedeveloping industrial society.1 The state of labor-management relations was an important conditioning factor in attaining the broad goals laid down for the ILO in recent years, the Director-General stated; for example, productivity had been widely emphasized during the preceding year, and in the last analysis, the success of efforts to bring about higher productivity depended largely on improved cooperation within industry between management and labor. Labor-management relations were fundamental to the achievement of better manpower utilization in underdeveloped countries, and to the improvement of working and living conditions. In connection with the desire for greater economic security, faulty labor-management relations, creating an obsession with security and an aversion to change on the part of labor, could result in economic stagnation. Research and standard-setting and technical assistance were noted by the Director-General as important contributions being made by the ILO to industrial development, but he stated that these activities, while related to the problems of labor and management, were limited in that they were primarily concerned with setting the goals and establishing the legislative and administrative framework for social policy. It was worth considering, he thought, whether the ILO was not in need of a more positive, active and varied program for improved labormanagement relations.

The seventh session of the Contracting Parties to GATT met at Geneva, Switzerland from October 2 to November 10, 1952 under the chairmanship of Johan Melander (Norway). Participating were delegates of the 34 countries which were contracting parties and observers from other governments and intergovernmental organizations. The seventh session was concerned primarily with items arising out of the operation of GATT, including items falling under the complaints procedure, tariffs and tariff negotiations, miscellaneous items proposed by governments and non-governmental organizations and the administration of GATT. Apart from an agreement between the Federal Republic of Germany and the Republic of Austria concerning reciprocal concessions to the tariff agreement which had been concluded in 1951 within the framework of the Torquay Tariff Conference, no tariff negotiations were undertaken during the session. In connection with the reduction of tariff levels, the contracting parties reexamined the French plan for lowering tariffs by 30 percent on a worldwide basis in three yearly stages and the contracting parties instructed working parties to continue studies of the question.

As a result of an agreement concluded with the United Nations, the ILO became the first intergovernmental organization created before World War II to be integrated into the framework of United Nations. The 29th Conference of the ILO effected a revision of the Constitution in order to facilitate a working relationship with the United Nations.

The General Council of the International Refugee Organization held its eighth session October 23 to 27, 1951 at Geneva. The Council reviewed the annual report of the Director-General for the period July 1, 1950 to June 30, 1951 in which Mr. Kingsley summarized the activities and achievements of IRO since its inception, defined the migration trends for the previous year, and discussed methods being employed to transfer IRO functions to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the Allied High Commission for Germany, and to voluntary groups and local authorities. In a supplementary report on residual problems Mr. Kingsley emphasized the serious refugee problems in Greece, Trieste, Austria, Italy, China, and Korea which would survive the organization's closure early in 1952 despite the substantial completion of IRO activities by that time. He reported that 573 'institutional hard core' cases were being resettled and 1,514 locally resettled but pointed out a lack in satisfactory arrangement for 477 hard core cases in Shanghai, Samar, Greece, and Spain, while particularly emphasizing the need to make intensive efforts to resettle the 398 cases in Shanghai and 900 additional cases in Trieste. Although the Council agreed to delay its communication on residual problems to the United Nations until its next session pending further information on Trieste and Shanghai, it approved a decision first to assist the 477 hard core cases, then to apportion expenditures equally between material assistance and resettlement. At the close of this report on residual problems Mr. Kingsley announced the favorable outcome of the shipping program and satisfactory arrangements with the 'institutional hard core', permitting resettlement of 9,000 additional refugees before closure.

The 30th International Labor ConferenceThe International Labor Conference, the legislative body of the ILO, convened for its 30th session on June 19,1947, at Geneva. C. J. Hambro (Norway) was elected president; vice-presidents selected were Carlos Desmaras (Argentina), Robert Watt (United States) and Sir John Forbes-Watson (United Kingdom).

International intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) play a significant role in contemporary life, and in the course of their functioning they produce a very large number of publications and documents. In a study published in 1979, Documentation of the United Nations System, the author estimates that of the United Nations organizations alone, counting all language versions, the yearly output is approximately 180,000 pieces, with 7,500 items, or five percent of the total, being publications properly so called. Although we have no real statistics on the use of international documents there is general agreement among specialists in this field that the vast bulk of IGO documentation goes unread. Many reports and studies are intended, of course, for a limited audience such as a single meeting's participants, but also included in the mass of IGO materials are items of potential value to researchers in most disciplines, including law. In the present column I hope, without overlapping other sections of IJLI, to provide news about new international information systems and projects, new publications or documents of the United Nations and its specialized agencies such as the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Labor Organization (ILO), Unesco, and the World Bank, and information about international bodies outside the UN system. Fortunately, I am in a good position to see new IGO publications because they arrive daily at the Library of Congress from agencies scattered across the continents; I also obtain news from regular contacts in various organizations, particularly from individuals in Washington-based international agencies. Although my plan is to discuss specific organizations and documents, I shall also dwell a bit on the abstract subject of international documentation.

The 36th session of the International Labor Conference was held in Geneva from June 4 to 25, 1953. Senator Irving M. Ives (United States, government delegate) was unanimously elected chairman.