II. Constitution of the World Health Organization—Con. Budget and Expenses (Chapter XII) 2. Constitution of the World Health Organization. 3. Arrangement Concluded by the Governments Represented 8. Senate Joint Resolution 89-Seventy-ninth Congress (Rela- 9. Proposals for the Establishment of an International Health PAGE List of Members and Alternates of the Technical Prepar- I. International Health Conference A. SUMMARY OF ACTION The International Health Conference, convened in New York on June 19, 1946 by the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations, took action to establish a single international health organization world-wide in scope and to provide for interim action pending the entry into force of its Constitution. On July 22, 1946 the Conference was brought to a close by the signing of the following documents: (1) the Final Act (61 states); (2) the Constitution of the World Health Organization (61 states); (3) an Arrangement establishing its Interim Commission (61 states); (4) a Protocol concerning the Office International d'Hygiène publique (60 states). This latter instrument provides for the ultimate dissolution of the Office and for the transfer of its functions to the World Health Organization or to its Interim Commission. The Constitution provides that the World Health Organization shall be a specialized agency to be brought into relationship with the United Nations according to Article 57 of the Charter of the United Nations. It allows for the integration with the World Health Organization of existing regional intergovernmental health agencies. The Interim Commission, composed of 18 states, was formed by resolution of the Conference and began its work before the Conference ended. It later continued at work under the authority of the Arrangement signed on July 22, 1946. This allows for the assumption by the Commission of the functions and duties of the Health Organization of the League of Nations, the Office International d'Hygiène publique, and of those special functions of UNRRA which relate to the exchange of epidemiological information. A Conference resolution requests the United Nations to transfer to the Interim Commission the functions of the Health Organization of the League of Nations which have been assumed by the United Nations. The Constitution of the World Health Organization will enter into force when it has been accepted by 26 members of the United Nations. The first two states to accept it were the United Kingdom and China 1 whose representatives signed on July 22 without reservation as to acceptance. Canada has since accepted it by action of Parliament. Pending the entry into force of the Constitution, the Interim Commission will carry on the work authorized by the Arrangement establishing the Commission. B. BACKGROUND The International Health Conference was the result of action by a number of states to develop a single international health organization within the framework of the United Nations. At the United Nations Conference on International Organization in San Francisco in 1945, health was recognized in Article 55 of the Charter of the United Nations as a field with which the United Nations should concern itself. Article 57 of the Charter envisaged the establishment by intergovernmental agreement of a specialized health agency with wide responsibilities. At that Conference, Brazil and China introduced a Joint Declaration calling attention to the need for the early establishment of an international health organization. This was unanimously approved by Committee II/3. On the basis of the Joint Declaration, Brazil and China opened negotiations with France, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the United Kingdom, and the United States in order to convene in 1945 a conference to establish an international health organization. Brazil and China requested the United States to serve as host to the conference. In view, however, of the establishment of the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations, it was agreed that the conference might most appropriately be convened by the Council. Accordingly, the Council at its first session adopted, on February 15, 1946, a resolution calling an International Health Conference to meet not later than June 20, 1946. This resolution also provided for a Technical Preparatory Committee, composed of 16 experts from as many countries, to meet in Paris in March 1946 to prepare basic documents for the Conference. In 1945 and early 1946 the Department of State and the Public Health Service developed proposals for a draft constitution for the projected international health organization. The Department of State convened on October 11-12, 1945 an Advisory Health Group, composed of national leaders in health and civic affairs (Annex 6), which studied and amended the draft proposals and adopted a resolu |