International Refugee Organization
Abbreviation | IRO |
---|---|
Predecessor | United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration |
Successor | United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees |
Formation | 20 April 1946; 78 years ago (1946-04-20) |
Type | UN specialized agency |
Legal status | Inactive |
Parent organization | United Nations |
The International Refugee Organization (IRO) was an intergovernmental organization founded on 20 April 1946 to deal with the massive refugee problem created by World War II. A Preparatory Commission began operations fourteen months previously. In 1948, the treaty establishing the IRO formally entered into force and the IRO became a United Nations specialized agency. The IRO assumed most of the functions of the earlier United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration. In 1952, operations of the IRO ceased, and it was replaced by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
The Constitution of the International Refugee Organization, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 15 December 1946, is the founding document of the IRO. The constitution specified the organization's field of operations. Controversially, the constitution defined "persons of German ethnic origin" who had been expelled, or were to be expelled from their countries of birth into the postwar Germany, as individuals who would "not be the concern of the Organization." This excluded from its purview a group that exceeded in number all the other European displaced persons put together. Also, because of disagreements between the Western allies and the Soviet Union, the IRO only worked in areas controlled by Western armies of occupation.[1]
Twenty-six states became members of the IRO and it formally came into existence in 1948: Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Republic of China, Chile, Denmark, the Dominican Republic, France, Guatemala, Honduras, Iceland, Italy, Liberia, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Panama, Peru, the Philippines, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Venezuela. The U.S. provided about 40% of the IRO's $155 million annual budget. The total contribution by the members for the five years of operation was around $400 million. It had rehabilitated around 10 million people during this time, out of 15 million people who were stranded in Europe. The IRO's first Director-General was William Hallam Tuck, succeeded by J. Donald Kingsley on 31 July 1949.[2][3]
IRO closed its operations on 31 January 1952 and after a liquidation period, went out of existence on 30 September 1953. By that time many of its responsibilities had been assumed by other agencies. Of particular importance was the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees, established in January 1951 as a part of the United Nations, and the Intergovernmental Committee for European Migration (originally PICMME), set up in December 1951. [4]
Filmography
- The Search by Fred Zinnemann (1948): The IRO helped the producers to make this story about children refugees, in 1945 Germany.
See also
References
- ^ Louise W. Holborn, The International Refugee Organization: a specialized agency of the United Nations, its history and work, 1946–1952 (Oxford UP, 1956. 1956) online
- ^ Encyclopaedia Britannica: International Refugee Organization.
- ^ Constitution of the International Refugee Organization
- ^ "Summary of AG-018-007 International Refugee Organization (IRO)" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 30 March 2016. Retrieved 22 December 2017.
Further reading
- Holborn, Louise W. The International Refugee Organization: a specialized agency of the United Nations, its history and work, 1946–1952 (Oxford UP, 1956. 1956) online
- Holborn, Louise W. Philip Chartrand, and Rita Chartrand. Refugees, a problem of our time: the work of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, 1951-1972 (Scarecrow Press, 1975).
External links
- Records of the International Refugee Organization (IRO) at the United Nations Archives
- Constitution of the International Refugee Organisation
- Original, complete constitution of the IRO, assigned by the Government of the United Kingdom: https://treaties.un.org/doc/Publication/UNTS/Volume%2018/v18.pdf
- IRO. Area Vocational Training School. Ingolstadt, Bavaria, Germany 1948
- v
- t
- e
commissions
- United Nations Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice (CCPCJ)
- United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND)
- United Nations Commission on Population and Development (CPD)
- United Nations Commission on Science and Technology for Development (CSTD)
- United Nations Commission for Social Development (CSocD)
- United Nations Statistical Commission (StatCom)
- United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW)
- United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF)
- Europe (ECE)
- Africa (ECA)
- Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC)
- Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP)
- Western Asia (ESCWA)
- Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
- International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)
- International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)
- International Labour Organization (ILO)
- International Monetary Fund (IMF)
- International Maritime Organization (IMO)
- International Telecommunication Union (ITU)
- United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
- United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO)
- UN Tourism
- Universal Postal Union (UPU)
- World Health Organization (WHO)
- World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)
- World Meteorological Organization (WMO)
- World Bank Group (WBG)
Programmes
- United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
- United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
- United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)
- United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat)
- United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)
- World Food Programme (WFP)
- Committee for Development Policy (CDP)
- Committee of Experts on Public Administration (CEPA)
- Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR)
- Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management (GGIM)
- Intergovernmental Working Group of Experts on International
Standards of Accounting and Reporting (ISAR) - Group of Experts on Geographical Names (UNGEGN)
- United Nations Permanent Forum on
Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) - Committee of Experts on International Cooperation in Tax Matters
- Committee of Experts on the Transport of Dangerous
Goods and on the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals - Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations
training
- United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI)
- United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR)
- United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR)
- United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD)
- United Nations System Staff College (UNSSC)
- United Nations University (UNU)
- High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF)
- International Trade Centre (ITC)
- Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS)
- United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)
- United Nations Sustainable Development Group (UNSDG)
- United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
- United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF)
- United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS)
- United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA)
- United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women)
- Functional Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD - Replaced in 2013 by UNHLPF)
- Functional Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR - Replaced in 2006 by UNHRC)
- International Refugee Organization (IRO - Replaced in 1952 by UNHCR)
- Category
- Politics portal