On 15 December 1946, at Flushing Meadow, New York, the United Nations General Assembly approves, by resolution 62 (I), the Constitution of the International Refugee Organization. The signatory Governments sign it the same day. The authentic texts are Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish, in a single copy deposited in the archives of the United Nations. The depositary is the Secretary-General. The Organization is non-permanent, a specialized agency to be brought into relationship with the United Nations.

The preamble recognizes that genuine refugees and displaced persons constitute an urgent problem which is international in scope. As regards displaced persons, the main task is to encourage and assist in every way possible their early return to their country of origin. Genuine refugees and displaced persons should be assisted by international action either to return to their countries of nationality or former habitual residence or to find new homes elsewhere, under the conditions of the Constitution; in the case of Spanish Republicans, to establish themselves temporarily until a democratic regime succeeds the Falangist regime in Spain. The expenses of repatriation should, to the extent practicable, be charged to Germany and Japan for persons displaced by those Powers from countries occupied by them.

Article 1 extends the mandate to refugees and displaced persons in accordance with the principles, definitions and conditions in Annex I, which is an integral part of the Constitution. Annex I excludes, among others, persons of German ethnic origin who have been expelled, or are to be expelled, from their countries of birth into postwar Germany, as well as war criminals. Article 2 sets the functions: repatriation; identification, registration and classification; care and assistance; legal and political protection; transport; and re-settlement and re-establishment in countries able and willing to receive them. The priority is return, with material assistance, food for three months from departure for a country that suffered enemy occupation, clothing and means of transportation.

Article 3 provides for a relationship agreement with the United Nations under Articles 57 and 63 of the Charter. Article 4 opens membership to Members of the United Nations and, on the recommendation of the Executive Committee and a two-thirds vote of the General Council, to other peace-loving States. Withdrawal is by written notice to the Chairman of the Executive Committee and takes effect one year later. Article 5 establishes a General Council, an Executive Committee and a Secretariat. The General Council is the ultimate policy-making body, with one vote per member; it meets at least once a year, and at least twice a year for the first three years. The Executive Committee consists of nine members, elected for two-year terms.

Article 8 makes the Director-General the chief administrative officer, appointed by the General Council on the nomination of the Executive Committee. Article 9 requires the highest standards of efficiency, competence and integrity in staff, geographical recruitment and an adequate number of persons from the countries of origin of the displaced persons; the staff shall not receive instructions from any authority external to the Organization. Article 10 divides the budget into administrative, operational and large-scale re-settlement expenditures; the last are voluntary contributions. Article 11 leaves the General Council to establish headquarters at Paris or at Geneva.

Article 17 treats the Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish texts as equally authentic; questions of interpretation are referred to the International Court of Justice unless the General Council or the parties agree otherwise. Article 18 provides that States may become parties by signature without reservation as to approval, by signature followed by acceptance, or by acceptance deposited with the Secretary-General. The Constitution shall come into force when at least fifteen States, whose required contributions to Part I of the operational budget in Annex II amount to not less than 75 per cent of the total, have become parties. Those conditions were later met; the Constitution entered into force on 20 August 1948.

It is not the Statute of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, adopted on 14 December 1950, and not the Convention relating to the Status of Refugees of 28 July 1951. It is not UNRRA, and not the General Assembly resolution of 12 February 1946, which the preamble invokes as a prior principle.

Image: Queens Museum of Art, former New York City Building, Flushing Meadows; Jim Henderson, 8 June 2008; public domain, Wikimedia Commons. Cropped to 16:9.

Source consulted: International Refugee Organization. Treaty text: Constitution of the International Refugee Organization, Flushing Meadow, 15 December 1946.