Editorial Note
In 1946 the general refugee policy of the United States evolved at the United Nations against the background of the actual, impending, or planned dissolution of the then-existing international bodies concerned with refugee problems, the Office of the High Commissioner of the League of Nations for Refugees, the Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees, and the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA). The principal achievements of United States policy were to win recognition that the problem of refugees and displaced persons was still in 1946 international in scope and so should continue to be a matter for international concern; to gain acceptance of the principle of no compulsory repatriation; and to occupy a position of influence in decision-making in the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations (ECOSOC) and various of its committees which led directly to the adoption by the General Assembly of the United Nations on December 15, 1946 of a draft constitution establishing the International Refugee Organization (IRO). A summary of the progress of the refugee question at the United Nations in 1946 is found in Foreign Relations, volume V, pages 138–140.
The IRO constitution was opened immediately for signature at New York on December 15 and was signed subject to approval on December 16 by the United States Representative-Designate at the United Nations (Austin); the instrument of acceptance for the United States was deposited on July 3, 1947 pursuant to authority granted to the Executive by a joint resolution of the Congress approved July 1, 1947. The IRO constitution entered into force on August 20, 1948. During the period in which the constitution was receiving the required number of ratifications operational responsibility was assumed by the Preparatory Commission of the International Refugee Organization (PCIRO), for which provision had been made in an interim agreement adopted by the General Assembly on December 15, 1946. The interim agreement, opened immediately for signature, was signed on behalf of the United States on December 16, 1946 and entered into [Page 1449] effect on December 31, 1946; PCIRO began functioning at Geneva on February 11, 1947. For texts, see United Nations, Official Records of the General Assembly, Second Part, First Session, Resolutions adopted by the General Assembly at the second part of the first session of the General Assembly, pages 97 ff.; or Treaties and Other International Acts of the United States 1846 (the IRO constitution) and 1583 (the interim agreement).
Unpublished United States documentation relating to these matters is found in the Department of State’s central indexed files under File No. 501.BD Refugees; and in the files of the Reference and Documents Section of the Bureau of International Organization Affairs which hold the minutes and records of United States delegations to the General Assembly and to the Economic and Social Council. Also to be found in the latter files are certain unpublished United Nations records relating to the ECOSOC phase, with specific reference to the two special committees in which the United States functioned vigorously, the Special Committee on Refugees and Displaced Persons which met in London April 8–June 1, 1946 and the Committee on the Finances of the International Refugee Organization which sat in London from July 6 to July 20, 1946. Published United Nations documentation is included in the official records of the first session of the General Assembly, first and second parts; the records of the Third Committee of the General Assembly for the first part and of the Third and Fifth Committees for the second part; and in the official records of the first three sessions of ECOSOC.