"La Vie Internationale et l'effort pour son organisation."
(International affairs and the drive to organize them).
That title, given to the leading article of the first issue -- which
came out in April 1912 -- of the magazine of the Union of International
Associations, is a perfect summary of the scope of action and the task
assigned to the Union by the two authors of the article, Henri La Fontaine
and Paul Otlet. These two, with another Belgian -- Cyrille Van Overbergh,
were the first General Secretaries of the Union whose 60th anniversary
is being celebrated this year [in 1970].
It has been said, and cannot be sufficiently emphasized, that they were
the main founders and, for over thirty years, the kingpins of the Union
of International Associations which I shall henceforth designate by its
initials UAI.
Having discovered, read and re-read their thoughts, realized their hopes
and dreams, noted their methodical outlook and their tenacity, discovered
their prophetic concepts and disinterested idealism on so many occasions
and in so many of their writings over the last few decades, I should like
to present this historical survey as a tribute to their memories.
To my mind, this tribute would be weakened were I to disregard certain
setbacks, and indeed certain errors made in the course of an otherwise
remarkable work.
The backbone of any institution is constituted by human beings, as Jacques
Rueff wrote one day, and consequently it is invaluable that another article
of the present issue devoted to the UAI should help us, by tracing the
portraits of Henri La Fontaine and Paul Otlet, to arrive at a better understanding
of the spirit and quality of the men who built up the UAI.
While it is my hope to devote an entire book to this subject one day
and thus pay a tribute to the whole army of great pioneers of international
co-operation whose names, in so many cases, are bound up with the history
of the UAI, today I must restrict myself to the limited number of pages
allocated to me and therefore abandon my idea of recalling their personal
contribution in order to recall merely the targets, milestones, setbacks
and achievements of an institution which is unique of its kind in 1970,
and was even more so at the time of its founding in 1910.
I shall avoid overweighting this brief survey by footnotes and other references,
and invite all readers interested in a detailed study of the points referred
to in this statement, to consult the Select Bibliography on International
Organization -- 1855-1964 (150 pages) which we published in 1965.
Those passages in quotation marks which are cited without any reference
as to source, are taken from UAI publications prior to 1940.
Before examining what the Union of International Associations was, what
it attempted and what it achieved, a certain amount of data must be borne
in mind.
The first few international organizations came into being gradually shortly
after the Congress of Vienna: only six were created between 1815 and 1849,
and twenty-nine between 1850 and 1869. The number of international congresses
held during the same periods was fourteen and one hundred and twenty-two
respectively. Then the movement began to speed up. Yet, in 1900, there
were still only 208 international organizations, 186 of which were established
in Europe, 17 in North America, 2 in South America, 2 in Asia, and 1 in
Africa. Twelve per cent of them were intergovernmental bodies.
The four years 1900 to 1904 witnessed the founding of 61 other international
non-governmental organizations -- which were known as international
associations until the United Nations came into existence in 1945 -- and
5 more intergovernmental bodies. During the period 1905-1909, the figures
were 131 and 4 respectively; from 1910 to 1914, they were 112 and 4.
It was only from 1904 on that the annual number of international congresses
finally rose to more than one hundred. Today, it is in excess of 4,000
a year. It should also be remembered that throughout the pre-1914 period,
Belgium was the main host country of the international movement, and alone
welcomed one-quarter -- and sometimes even one-third -- of the
international organizations. In 1914 their number stood at about 500; today
it is about to pass the figure of 3,000, ten per cent of which are of the
intergovernmental kind.
I. AIMS
Sociology
In 1907 Cyrille Van Overbergh, Director General of Higher Education,
Science and Literature of the Belgian Ministry of Science and Art, and
Director of the "International Sociological Movement", wrote
in the preface to a survey on "International Association", published
by the Belgian Sociological Society:
"Among the various social structures, there is one which is capturing
the attention of the civilized world to a growing extent; it is developing
and growing under our very eyes, with a speed and fertility that prove
its response to a growing need: this is the international association
in the present-day sense of the term, one of the most characteristics
expressions of solidarity among nations and, one might say, the compound
essence of the concept of internationalism in its highest and most fruitful
expression."
Here we should pause a moment at the word internationalism, which is now
obsolete, but which was widely used in the first documents published by
the UAL
A recent and fascinating neologism, to the intellectual elite of the early
twentieth century it recalled a notion of a newly born civilization, a
new organization of society. It was also used to designate "the study
of international affairs and their organic coordination".
The following fact seems to me to be a revealing one. On 6th May 1910,
in honour of the people participating in the 1st World Congress of International
Associations which was to lead to the foundation of the Union of International
Associations, a reception was held at the Sociological Institute in Brussels.
Mr. Maxweiler, Director of the latter, gave a lecture on the relationship
between sociology and internationalism, in which he stated:
"Sociology is the study of life. There can be no possibility of
a social world without providing for some form of organization, and consequently
sociology is very close to internationalism, both in practice and in
theory. There is growing concern about what the people will be like in
respect of whom the laws are being made; a policy based on science should
end up by internationalising the effort".
To the founders of the UAI:
"internationalism is a science insofar as it observes and theorises
international affairs; it is a social doctrine insofar as it atte mpts
to point up the aims which should be assigned to the human society, to
search for the means of achieving those aims and to express them in rules;
it is an art and a social policy insofar as it attempts to apply those
rules and to convert its precepts into practice."
And as they assigned to the UAI the task of assessing and describing
the degree of internationalism prevailing throughout the world, they gave
it the aim of pointing up a concept of internationalism and a programme
for its implementation.
A fairly detailed document published in August 1921 clarifies the concept,
notably by indicating that "internationalism is opposed to other doctrines" such
as -- and we quote from the actual text:
"the militarist philosophy which is convinced of the necessity
and the beneficial character of opposition between States, a theory which
leads to war; the "statist theory" which raises the State to
the rank of supreme expression of the social ideal and the maintenance
and development of its strength to the status of supreme purpose, as
also the extension of its territory and authority; the "nationalist
theory" which rests on narrow patriotism and leaves no room for
reasoning, which admires one particular nation to the exclusion of all
others and is convinced of the providential nature of one particular
State's mission in the world".
Yet we should add at once that this brand of internationalism was designed
to be quite different from unitary "cosmopolitanism" which regarded
the whole of mankind as a single social community irrespective of national
groupings.
On the first page of the 1908-1909 edition of the "Annuaire de
la Vie Internationale", in an article entitled "Internationalism
as a Science", .Alfred Fried wrote:
"Internationalism as a science is of very recent origin. It is
based on the concept of international co-operation considered from the
standpoint of its causes and its essence... Internationalism, as it appears
today, is far from seeking the mechanical blending of individual nations
or the abolition of peoples and homelands. Quite the contrary: it is
based on nations and homelands and derives from these formations the
strength and basis for its existence. By uniting the isolated nations
in a common task aimed at attaining a superior culture, and to ensure
a more effective representation of the individual interests of all homelands,
internationalism first wishes to help in the progressive development
of those homelands, the advancement of the vital value and grandeur of
each nation; it does not seek to abolish the homelands, but rather, through
the accumulated effect of work in common, through the regular exchange
of their output, to ensure that they enjoy greater wellbeing and security.
In actual fact, internationalism is a higher, nobler form of patriotism."
In this passage, which was intended to refute such accusations as "enemies
of the nations", "traitors to their country" which were
then being hurled against the internationalists, the concept of co-operation
in development will not fail to strike the reader.
Similarly, in the report of the 2nd World Congress of International Associations,
held in Ghent and Brussels in 1913, we read that:
"The Congress has also dissipated the last lingering doubt that
may still have existed in some minds regarding the possibility of combining
the legitimate interests of nationalism with those of internationalism.
Far from aiming at a colourless, levelling brand of cosmopolitanism,
internationalism -- of which the Congress is the organic expression -- rests
on the existence of the national communities themselves. It respects
them and would like to see them develop, just as within a single nation
it is permissible to hope for the development of the various communities
of which it consists and the human individuals who are part of those
communities
"It is through increasingly close contacts between nations, the
pooling of their experience and achievements, that internationalism will
achieve its greatness and strength. Thus, from all the reconciled, united
national civilizations, a universal civilization will gradually develop."
The fundamental concept which led to the institution of the UAI is clarified
as follows in the same report of the 1913 Congress:
"The effort must first be directed towards the development of the
International Associations as these constitute the social structure which
best responds to the organizational needs of the universal society."
It seems interesting to linger awhile over these concepts which may seem
rather outmoded today, but which, at the time when the UAI came into existence,
were the subject of great controversy. Even in those days it was necessary
to restate them since, as Guizot said, "yesterday's history is the
least known and this morning's the soonest forgotten". But those quotations
are still extraordinarily topical, both as to the thought and the way in
which it is expressed in words such as welfare, well-being, security, united
civilizations, development.
It was also necessary to quote these excerpts from the numerous texts
on the subject published by the UAI in order to make for a better understanding
of the fundamental concept which brought the UAI into existence, and which
is set out as follows in the report on its 1913 Congress:
"To accomplish these tasks, a central body is necessary. This body
is the Union of International Associations with its World Congress, a
representational and debating organization, and its executive body the
Central Bureau,"
Documentation
Especially during the period preceding the foundation of the UAI, it
was considered that one of the important tasks of the international associations
was to ensure that documentation on matters coming within their competency
should be established and organized on a universal basis.
One might even say that the basis for the increasingly close relations
between the international associations, and which led to the creation in
1908 of the Central Bureau of International Associations (which became
the UAI Secretariat after 1910) was their concern to arrive at an efficient
organization of documentation accruing from the international associations
by relying on the services of the International Bibliographical Institute,
founded in 1895, and which itself may be claimed to have led to the creation
of the UAI.
It will be recalled that Henri La Fontaine and Paul Otlet in 1905 were
the directors-general of that Institute, and that same year submitted a
joint report to the 4th International Conference on Bibliography and Documentation
held in Brussels, dealing with "The Present State of Bibliographical
Affairs and the International Organization of Documentation".
Very soon the target was widened to embrace the collection and distribution
of a wealth of documentation on all the associations, meetings and publications
that were international in character. Then the ambition slowly developed
of organizing a world documentation centre, to be fed and developed through
the co-operation of all organizations which produced or utilized such documents.
Furthermore, from 1908 on plans were afoot to add another department to
the Central Bureau dealing with information on international bodies and
on affairs connected with internationalism.
In 1920 there was talk of creating "a general publication and documentation
system that would unite in one vast network all the most important study
and research centres so as to co-ordinate scientific information and ensure
its widest possible distribution."
Co-ordination and Co-operation
The objectives of a documentary and sociological nature were rounded
off by that of promoting co-ordination and co-operation between international
associations. Right from the start, the words co-ordination and co-operation
caused alarm in many minds.
The Chairman of the 1st World Congress of International Associations,
Auguste A. Beernaert, a Minister of State and President of the Interparliamentary
Union, strove lucidly to clear up misconceptions by stating in his opening
speech, after reviewing many instances of the work done by international
bodies:
Auguste Beernaert, Minister
of State, Chairman of the Interparliamentary Union,
winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1909,
Chairman of the 1st World Congress of International Associations, in
Brussels in 1920
"We see, therefore, that the question is one of
a vast movement of ideas, observations and studies, and the extent
to which it is growing in parallel to the ceaseless development of
people-to-people relations and the breathtaking advance of science.
And after that, is it still necessary for me to make a great effort
to demonstrate the utility of co-ordinating all those energies and
get them to apply similar methods so that each may benefit from the
executive power of the whole? Each association must retain its autonomy
and its own character, just as the establishment of interparliamentary
relations in no way affects the absolute independence of the States
whose nationals are members of that movement. But the charting of an
agreement is only one of the ways in which autonomous initiative is
exercised. And an agreement of this kind is equally desirable for the
unity of effort and for the simplification of means..."
In the article "International affairs and the drive to organize
them" written in 1912 by Henri La Fontaine and Paul Otlet, mentioned
in the first few lines of this article, the objective is defined as follows:
"In parallel to the federation of individual bodies, a genuine
federation of work is taking place, based on co-operation and co-ordination.
"Co-operation is based on combined programmes, collective aims charted
by mutual agreement, and concerted views on the best means of implementing
them.
"Co-operation and co-ordination between International Associations
may be directed either towards the purpose of their work (a purpose common
to several of them) or towards their methods (unification of documents,
unified systems, unitary work factors), or again on the conditions in
which the work is done (co-operation to provide the means of doing work
at one time and for the benefit of all, that would be in excess of the
capabilities or means open to individual bodies)."
The same article goes on to stress the need for co-operation between the
international associations and intergovernmental bodies. It underlines
that
"one of the most important tasks of the International Associations
is drawing up rules and regulations. Agreements between States is nearly
always directed towards this end. But where private associations are
concerned, the place occup;ed by rules and regulations is constantly
growing."
Edited in 1914, the programme of the 3rd World Congress, which should
have taken place in 1915 at San Francisco, expresses the wish that:
"in future, there shall no longer be any field of work or research
which is not represented by an international association; that all functions
which are part of the life of nations should effectively be scrutinized
by appropriate bodies, and that connections should be established between
them, so that all of them may co-operate in the general organization
of the world."
Peace
The following story is told by Cyrille Van Overbergh in an article published
in 1912 in the magazine "La Vie Internationale". It
should be recalled that he was at the time one of the Secretaries-General
in question:
"The Secretaries-General of the Central Bureau of International
Associations can hardly ever meet one another without giving each other
the good news that a new international body has been founded -- to
such an extent that quite recently, at a pacifist meeting where one of
us was talking about progress in this field, an eminent Statesman cried:
But that's the real positive basis of international pacifism. To unite
against war is all very well, but the union has a negative target. It
is far better to unite in founding international associations, in multiplying
and developing them: I hail this course as the most fruitful kind of
civilizing pacifism."
The idea is voiced here in the terminology and atmosphere of an age when
the cream of all nations, large and small, sought through diplomatic conferences,
congresses and multifarious associations, for the basis of a durable peace
edified on a foundation of law, arbitration and disarmament. But the idea
itself -- peace through the international organizations -- which
had, moreover, already been put forward at the 1907 Peace Conference in The
Hague, was undoubtedly one of the major concepts which guided the work of
the Union of International Associations from the time of its foundation.
It is rather surprisingly symbolized by the fact that two of the three
authors of the 1908-1909 edition of the Yearbook of International Organizations,
which in those days was called "L'Annuaire de la Vie Internationale",
were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize: Alfred A. Fried in 1911, and Henri
La Fontaine in 1913, not of course for their work as editors of the Yearbook
alone.
It is also symbolized by the fact that the Yearbook was published jointly
by the Central Bureau of International Organizations, the International
Bibliographical Institute and the International Peace Institute; and by
the fact that the next edition -- that of 1910-1911 -- was published
in co-operation with the Carnegie Endownment for International Peace.
Let us add at this point, leaving aside for a moment the chronological
framework we have followed up to now, that underlying all these activities
and projects undertaken since 1910 by the Union of International Associations,
the idea of peace through international organizations has just regained
pride of place in the UAI's future programme as result of the recommendation
made to Unesco by one of the Soviet members of the UAI, Professor A. Kovalsky.
This recommendation is mentioned in the article by Mr. Fenaux, and we shall
therefore not deal with it again here.
II. THE MILESTONES
The history of the UAI can be divided into three phases,
each of which is delimited by the world wars.
On 4th June 1907, the representatives of twenty or so associations decided
to set up the Central Bureau of International Organizations. This was officially
founded, under the patronage of the Belgian Government, by the General
Assembly of 29th January 1908, during which it was decided to organize
a World Congress of International Associations, to be held in Brussels
in 1910.
Inaugural session of the 1st World Congress of International Associations
in the Great Hall of the Brussels Academy on 9th May 1910
The Congress, which ended in a report totalling 1,246 pages, attracted
a great deal of attention. It was held from 9th to 11th May 1910 in the
Palace of the Academies, Brussels, under the presidency of Auguste Beernaert,
1909 Laureate of the Nobel Peace Prize, a former Prime Minister, the President
and representative of the Interparliamentary Union. Prince Roland Bonaparte;
Mr. Clunet, President of the Institute of International Law; Mr. Gobat,
1902 Laureate of the Nobel Peace Prize and a delegate of the International
Peace Bureau; Mr. Guillaume, President of the French Commission on Electrotechnical
Terminology; Mr. Wilhelm Ostwald, 1909 Laureate of the Nobel Chemistry
Prize and President of the International Association of Chemical Societies;
and Mr. Ernest Solvay were the vice-Chairmen of the Congress.
1st phase [1907-1914]
It dates back in fact to July 1906, a year in which the few international
bodies which had their headquarters in Brussels began to draw closer to
one another. This was just after the World Development Congress in Mons
(1905) and on the eve of the Hague Conference (1907).
Delegates representing 132 international associations, 13 governments,
several dozen other associations, and five Nobel Prizewinners took part.
This 1st World Congress of International Associations led to the foundation
of the UAI. The three Secretaries-General of the Congress: Henri La Fontaine,
Paul Otlet and Cyrille Van Overbergh, became the Secretaries-General of
the new body.
The
structure of the UAI was as follows: The World Congress, to be held every
three years; the International Council, composed of delegates of the international
associations, meeting every year; and the Central Bureau as the UAI's executive
body.
The 2nd World Congress took place in Ghent and Brussels from 15th to
18th June 1913, under the presidency of Mr. Cooreman, Minister of State
and President of the International Congress of Administrative Sciences.
It was attended by delegates from 169 international associations and 22
governments. The work of this Congress, the report on which runs to 1,264
pages, consecrates the results achieved by the first Congress and was "a
new milestone along the road to international organization through the
unrestricted co-operation of the associations, aided by the States".
The 3rd World Congress, preparations for which were interrupted by the
outbreak of war, was to have been held in San Francisco in 1915 within
the framework of the Exhibition designed to commemorate the centenary of
peace between the United States and Great Britain and to celebrate the
opening of the Panama Canal.
In 1914 the UAI had federated 230 international non-governmental organizations,
or rather more than half the total number existing at that time.
2nd phase [1915-1943]
During World War I, the UAI maintained a relative amount of internal
activity, but its directors published a number of studies abroad aimed
at the organization of the League of Nations, (H. La Fontaine, The
Great Solution, 1915; Paul Otlet, Les Problemes internationaux
et la guerre, 1916; Constitution mondiale de la Societe
des Nations, 1917).
In this respect, a seven-page memorandum by the Secretary-General of
the League of Nations, classified as Council document No. A.43 (B) 1421,
communicated on 5th September 1921 to the member States of the League and
to the delegates of the Assembly, on the subject of "Educational Activities
and Co-ordination of Intellectual Work accomplished by the Union of International
Associations", underlined in the following terms the support given
by the UAI to the institution of the League of Nations:
"The principles and ambitions of the Union of International Associations
were consecrated by the formation of the League. The very nature of the
work carried out by the Union of International Associations before the
war rendered it indirectly and within the means at its disposal, one
of the promoters of the League of Nations. It had already expressly declared
at one of the Congresses that the principle of a League of Nations was
the ultimate end of all international movements. During the war the leaders
of the Union drew up drafts of a Covenant and of an international constitution."
This memorandum paid tribute to the importance of the bodies and collective
organizations grouped around the UAI, the natures of which it summarised
as well as the debt they owed to Henri La Fontaine and Paul Otlet. It concluded
with the following passage:
"Surveying as a whole the picture we have just drawn, the work
of the founders of the Union of International Associations, a work of
documentation and information, of co-ordination of effort, of general
education, appears as a vast entreprise of international intellectual
organization, characterised by the breadth of its conception and design.
Its action is twofold as regards principles; it owes to the logical force
of the ideas which it has brought forward an educative influence which
is highly conducive to the development of the ideas of union and international
organization. As regards, facts, it has proved its efficacy by the institutions
which it has created. The Union of International Associations, its Congresses,
the publications connected with them, and the International University,
form particularly effective instruments for the "diffusion of a
broad spirit of understanding and world-wide co-operation". The
League of Nations should regard these institutions to-day as most valuable
organs of collaboration.
"This view was affirmed by the Assembly when it approved the moral
and material support given by the Council to the Union of International
Associations and to the International University. We may, perhaps, interpret
the Resolution of the Assembly as a tribute implicitly rendered to the
two eminent workers in the cause of international union to which these
institutions are due."
Yet the paragraph which preceded this praise also contained a reminder
of the financial support extended to the UAI, inter alia by the Belgian
Government and the Carnegie Endowment: two dangerous phases for establishing
working relations between the League of Nations and the UAI. We believe
it useful to quote the entire paragraph, because it is the only piece of
accurate information we still have on the UAI's financial resources prior
to 1914 owing to the destruction of the Union's administrative records
during World War II.
"The cost of the work accomplished by Mr. La Fontaine and Mr. Otlet
has amounted, since its beginning to approximately 1,200,000 francs.
During the years immediately preceding the war, the Belgian Government
and the Carnegie Peace Fund contributed annual subsidies of 20,000 and
50,000 francs respectively for the Union of International Associations
and for the Office of Bibliography, and 15,000 dollars for the Union.
After the war the Belgian Government granted a credit of 100,000 francs
for the third World Congress, and met the cost of establishing the International
Centre in the Palais du Cinquantenaire. But the financial situation of
the Union and of the International Centre remains precarious. If they
are to continue their work, it will be necessary to proceed to financial
consolidation and the establishment of a working capital. It was proposed
to allot, if necessary, a sum of 20 million francs out of the available
funds of the Belgian National Committee created during the war by Mr.
Solvay; but for legal and political reasons the question has been left
undecided. It must not be forgotten that the activity of the Institutions
created by Mr. La Fontaine and Mr. Otlet hitherto owes its success to
these two personalities and the question of future control is as great
a cause of uncertainty as the question of material resources."
In actual fact, trends counter to the wishes of the UAI were beginning
to come to the fore. When the war ended the desire of the UAI executives,
and especially of its two Secretaries-General, was to see some intellectual
organization set up within the League of Nations along similar lines to
that already established for manual work, in the hope that it would support
the international bodies already created by the UAI and that it would help
in the creation of new ones, such as a World Scientific Research Institute,
an International Bureau of Unit and Standards, an International Patents
Office, an International Institute for Social Progress -- as is indicated
in the very detailed draft convention for that organization, drawn up by
the UAI early in 1921.
Already on 5th January 1919, a meeting of UAI delegates held in Paris
laid down the terms of a memorandum addressed to the Peace Conference delegates
containing a projected World Charter of Intellectual and Moral Interests.
Mr. Paul Hymans, who represented Belgium at the Peace Conference, was the
first to present intellectual co-operation as an important factor in the
work to be accomplished by the League of Nations, and proposed that an
International Committee on Intellectual Co-operation should be set up.
But at that time his proposal was not adopted.
The 3rd World Congress of International Associations, held in Brussels
in August 1920, debated and worked out the plan for an organization of
intellectual activity to be implemented in co-operation with the League
of Nations.
The UAI also convened an International Congress on Intellectual Activities,
which took place from 20th to 22nd August 1921. This congress examined
the draft statutes of an International Confederation of Intellectual Workers
which was effectively set up in Paris on 8th April 1923. On a proposal
by Adolphe Ferriere, it expressed the hope that
"in liaison with the League of Nations and the proposed Intellectual
Activities Organization, an International Educational Bureau should be
set up for the comparative analysis of information on modern teaching
methods",
which was founded in December 1925 as a non-governmental organization,
and later became an inter-governmental organisation on 25th July 1929.
After recalling the work done by the UAI's International Centre, the congress
also asked
"that the League of Nations should give its consideration to the
practical accomplishments already recorded, and transform them into a
technical organization similar to those it has set up for Labour and
Health, and the operation of which is illustrated in the project prepared
by the Union of International Associations". But in their turn,
the French Association for the League of Nations had become interested
in a similar project, and during its session of 21st June 1921, had expressed
the hope that an International Bureau of Intellectual Relationships and
Education should be created, appending a draft of the statutes to its
request.
During its session of 13th December 1920, the League of Nations Assembly
had sent another proposal back to its 2nd Commission for study, concerning
the establishment of an international intellectual organization. This was
submitted by Messrs. Poullet (Belgium), Negulesco (Rumania) and Ferraris
(Italy). It had designated Henri La Fontaine as rapporteur.
The paramount influence of Mr. Leon Bourgeois, French representative
on the League of Nations Council, in the debates on intellectual co-operation,
brought the dual wish formulated by the UAI and the French Association
to a successful conclusion -- mentioning these bodies in its report -- but
reorientated the programme on the creation of a Commission with its headquarters
in Paris.
To sum up briefly, we shall recall merely that the League of Nations
Council adopted Mr. Leon Bourgeois's report on 2nd September 1921. This
proposed the creation of a "Commission for the study of international
questions pertaining to Intellectual Co-operation and Education, which
would draw up a report on the measures which the League might take in order
to facilitate intellectual exchanges amongst nations". Later, the
word Education was deleted, and on 4th January 1922 the Council decided
to set up the International Commission on Intellectual Co-operation.
During its first meeting in Geneva on 1st August 1922, this body elected
its chairman, choosing the French philosopher Henri Bergson. In 1924, for
the purpose of proceeding to the implementation stage, it was proposed
that an International Institute for Intellectual Co-operation be set up.
On 24th July 1924 the French Government offered to house this Institute
in Paris, and bound itself to endow it with its own budget of an annual
amount of 2 million French francs. This proposal was accepted, and from
1925 to 1946 the International Institute for Intellectual Co-operation,
installed in the Palais-Royal, to some extent materialized the wish formulated
by Paul Valery: "A League of Nations presupposes a League of Intellects".
The Unesco constitution, adopted in London on 16th November 1945 by 43
States, put an end to the Institute's activities.
It was necessary to recall the circumstances surrounding the foundation
of the International Institute for Intellectual Co-operation, not only
to underline the part played by the UAI in its creation but also because
of the veritable shattering of the UAI's work as a result of that Institute's
activities. The latter included in its programme all sorts of tasks which
were part and parcel of the UAI's activities, and caused the displacement
from Brussels to Paris of the hub of the international intellectual movement.
Thus, to give but one example, it happened that already on 10th December
1925, the first meeting of representatives of 19 international associations
took place in Paris on the premises of the International Institute for
Intellectual Co-operation. On the initiative of a Frenchman, Mr. Andre
Waltz, and an American woman, Mrs. Laura Barney, they decided to create
a Joint Committee of the Major International Associations. This worked
very closely with the Institute and, in fact, vanished with it.
The League of Nations certainly continued to display an interest in the
UAI's work for several years. It granted a certain degree of patronage
to the first three sessions of the International University, founded by
the UAI in September 1920; it allocated a subsidy of £1,500 sterling
for the publication in 1923, under its aegis, of the first volume of the "Code
des Voeux Internationaux",a work of 942 pages.But three decisions
made by the League of Nations had adverse consequences for the UAI.
The first was the creation of an International Bureau Section in the League
of Nations Secretariat itself; the second was the publication, by that
section, of a quarterly bulletin containing information on the work of
the international organizations, which appeared regularly from 1922 to
1939; and the third was another publication by the section, from 1921 onwards,
of a Handbook of International Organizations.
These initiatives virtually deprived the UAI of every opportunity of
continuing to publish its own magazine and yearbook on a satisfactory basis.
And to underline the historical irony of the matter, let us add that the
League of Nations began by publishing a simple "List of International
Unions, Associations, Institutions, Commissions, Bureaux, etc.",
containing a preface signed on 4th November 1919 by Mr. Inazo Nitobe, Director
of the Section of International Bureaux of the League of Nations. The two
first paragraphs of the preface read as follows:
"The work connected with the formation of International Associations
was carried on actively and increasingly up to the beginning of the war,
when over 500 were in existence, but at the outbreak of hostilities their
activities necessarily slackened and in some cases ceased altogether.
With the return of peace, it is to be hoped that most of them will resume
their work. As so little is generally known of organizations working
for international co-operation and good will, the Union of International
Associations in Brussels has been asked for permission to reprint in
a tabular form the names of such associations. A detailed account of
their constitutions and activities is given in the "Annuaire
de la Vie Internationale". Some of the associations mentioned
have ceased to exist; of others no recent report can be obtained. The
list is based mainly on information collected in 1911, but a certain
number of additions have been made of associations which have since come
into existence, or are about to do so in the near future.
"Senator La Fontaine and M. Otlet, Directors of the Office of International
Associations, have kindly revised the list, and it is due to their indefatigable
labours that the list is as complete as it is."
In the following chapters dealing with the UAI's setbacks and achievements,
we shall briefly record what was done and attempted between the two world
wars, and shall consequently restrict ourselves here to recalling some
of its meetings.
The 3rd Congress of International Associations, attended by about a hundred
of them, was held in Brussels from 5th to 20th September 1920, at the same
time as the first session of the International University. The latter held
its second session from 20th August to 15th September 1921, and the third
from 20th August to 5th September 1922, at the same time as a Conference
for the Development of the World Palace was being held from 20th to 22nd
August. The 4th session took place from 17th to 31st July 1927, the venue
in all cases being Brussels.
The 4th Congress of International Associations took place at Geneva University
on 8th and 9th September 1924, under the presidency of Edouard Claparède
and Henri La Fontaine, and was attended by about fifty international organizations.
The League of Nations delegated its Deputy Secretary, Mr. Nitobe, to the
meeting.
A 7th Congress was also held from 17th to 19th July 1927. Nevertheless,
owing to conflicting initiatives, financial difficulties and too many projects
that aroused some alarm, Henri La Fontaine and Paul Otlet became more and
more isolated in their work. With extraordinary tenacity, they kept on
in spite of all, while the number of their assistants dwindled; and right
up to the outbreak of World War II they continued with their wholly admirable
documentary work.
Henri La Fontaine died on 14th May 1943, leaving his fortune and his
library in two equal shares to the UAI and the International Peace Bureau,
thus giving an ultimate proof of his faith in the ideals for which he had
striven throughout his entire life. Paul Otlet died on 10th December 1944.
3rd phase[1948-1970]
Just after World War II, the Minister of Justice appointed a lawyer,
Jules Polain, as temporary administrator because of the La Fontaine bequest
and also the existence of the substantial documentation belonging to the
UAI. During the war, the latter had been settled in the residence of the
British Ambassador in Brussels by the German authorities who, despite the
protests of La Fontaine and Otlet, had also appointed an administrator
and attempted to revive the UAL The work was reduced to documentary activities
and the publications, in 1943, of three issues of a "Bulletin of International
Associations".
Mr. Polain considered that an attempt should be made to reorganize the
UAI, and he set up a Provisional Committee under the chairmanship of Minister
of State Paul van Zeeland. The following were members: Mr. Leimgriiber,
Chancellor of the Swiss Confederation; Ed. Lesoir, Secretary-General of
the International Institute of Administrative Sciences; O. Louwers, Secretary-General
of the International Colonial Institute; F. Muuls, Belgian Ambassador;
E. Vinck, Director-General of the International Union of Local Authorities;
these were later joined by Count Henri Carton de Wiart and Mr. Jacques
Rueff.
This committee, of which Mr. Polain (who died on 31stD ecember 1951)
remained Provisional Administrator, decided early in 1948 that the UAI
should resume its work. They entrusted the author of this article, in October
1948, with the task of getting the UAI Secretariat back on an operative
footing. Thanks to the Municipal Administration of Brussels, premises were
found in the Egmont Palace, and in January 1949 the first issue of a monthly
magazine came off the press.
To the problems of reorganization of the documentation department and
the administrative posts were added others which were more difficult to
resolve. A new situation had been created owing to the granting, by the
United Nations Charter, of a consultative status to non-governmental organizations
(NGO) and the creation of an Interim Committee of Non-Governmental Organizations,
the Chairman of which was Mr. Howard Wilson, Director of the Carnegie Endowment
for International Peace.
In Geneva, Paris and New York, some people did not conceal their long-nourished
prejudice against the "Brussels Union". It was suggested
that while Brussels certainly had been a very important centre of international
affairs prior to 1914, this was no longer the case and the headquarters
of the UAI should therefore be set up in one of the three great international
cities just mentioned.
An important meeting took place in Brussels on 20th July 1949 as a result
of the contacts established the previous April in New York and Geneva with
United Nations officials in charge of relations with the NGO's, during
which the members of the Interim Committee discussed with them the structure
and programme of the UAI. Held in the offices of the UAI in the Egmont
Palace, the meeting was attended by Minister of State Paul van Zeeland,
Chairman of the UAI. Mr. Howard Wilson, Chairman of the Interim Committee
of Non-Governmental Organizations; Baron de Gruben, Secretary-General of
the Belgian Foreign Ministry; Miss Anne Winslow of the Carnegie Endowment
and Mr. Max Habicht, a Geneva lawyer, acting as experts on behalf of the
Interim Committee; Mr. Aake Ording of Oslo, formerly director of the United
Nations Appeal for Children; Mr. Jules Polain, and myself.
By mutual agreement, it was considered preferable not to attempt to rebuild
the UAI into a federation of international associations, but nevertheless
to retain its title and its programme as a centre for documentation, study,
service, and the promotion of closer relations between international associations,
and to leave the question of technical and administrative problems resulting
from the consultative relationship between the United Nations and the NGO's
to the conferences organized by the consultative NGO's and to the Permanent
Liaison Committee of the consultative NGO's which was to be set up.
The executives of the UAI voiced their intention of recruiting members
of all nationalities, largely but not exclusively chosen among the directors
of international associations and elected in their personal capacity. They
asked Mr. Aake Ording to devote himself for a few months, in the capacity
of Executive Vice-Chairman, to the development of the UAI programme and
structure, on account of the interest he had already shown in 1948 in the
creation of an international centre that could render service to the NGO's.
A draft series of new statutes for the UAI was adopted by the UAI Executive
Council on 6th September 1950. It provided for new categories of members:
individual members who alone had voting rights, the number of which was
limited to 100, corresponding organizations, associate members. The first
post-war General Assembly was held on 5th February 1951 in Brussels. It
adopted the new statutes (which were later modified on 10th June 1955 and
on 10th May 1965), proceeded with the election of some fifty new members
of various nationalities and with the appointment of new members of the
Executive Council. These were Leon Jouhaux, Sir Ramaswami Mudaliar, and
Sir Harry Gill.
This General Assembly marked the end of the first stage in the reorganization
of the UAI. It was consolidated by the fact that the UAI had just overcome
a rather serious risk, namely: the project emanating from the United Nations
Secretariat concerning the proposed publication of a Yearbook of International
Organizations, when the UAI had already resumed its former activity
in that direction and was about to bring out a new edition in June 1950.
The risk was great of finding ourselves back in the same situation as the
UAI had experienced when the League of Nations embarked on a similar venture.
But this time the danger was averted.
In fact Mr. Walter Kotschnig, United States representative on the Economic
and Social Council, proposed a resolution, seconded by the Indian delegate
Sir Ramaswami Mudialar and adopted as Resolution 334 (XI) on 20th July
1950 by the United Nations Economic and Social Council. This pays tribute
first to the work and yearbook of the UAI and goes on to express the hope
that the Secretary-General will offer the Union of International Associations
as much information and co-operation as possible; and
"Decides not to give any further consideration, at this time, to
the publication by the United Nations of a handbook concerning non-governmental
organizations".
At the same period, the UAI was also in danger of seeing Unesco duplicate
its yearbook by the publication of a Directory of International Scientific
Organizations which included no less than 400 bodies. Luckily the
second edition in 1953 was also the last.
To conclude quickly this question of the establishment of relations between
the UAI and the United Nations, let us add that on 18th September 1951,
the UAI was raised to the status of a consultative body to the Economic
and Social Council. Consultative status with Unesco was granted in 1952,
and later on, several contracts brought Unesco's aid for bibliographical
work and also for a study of NGO's. Two other decisions in principle confirmed
and consolidated the UAI's good relations with the United Nations.
During its 16th session (1953) the Economic and Social Council received
the following recommandation from the Committee of the Council in charge
of Non-Governmental Organizations:
"The Committee unanimously expressed its appreciation of the value
and usefulness of the Yearbook of International Organizations published
by the Union of International Associations. Members voiced the hope that
the work of the Union would become even better known both to the public
and to Member States and that its continuation would be secured" (UN
Doc E/2489).
Then, dealing with Resolution 128 B (VI) dated 10th March 1948 by the
Economic and Social Council, requesting the compilation of a list of inter-governmental
bodies so that the Council could examine whether there was not some duplication
of effort or dispersion of energies by those bodies, the Secretary-General
of the United Nations, in a note dated 17th November 1955 (E/2808), proposed
that the Council, should it decide as in the past to undertake a general
review of the structures of inter-governmental organizations, should base
its work on the Yearbook of the International Organizations.
Relations between the UAI and the other inter-governmental organizations
and with international non-governmental organizations developed harmoniously
from then on. More than a hundred of articles written by them were published
in its monthly magazine, entitled successively "Monthly Bulletin
of the Union of International Associations" (1949 to 1950), "NGO
Bulletin" (1951 to 1953) and "International Associations" (since
1954), which increased from 16 to 64 pages and sometimes more, and from
January 1954 on, has been illustrated. Without aiming to list here all
the publications issued by the UAI, let us mention simply the launching
of new series apart from the Yearbook of International Organizations and
the monthly magazine:
In 1953, appearance of the first edition of the Directory of Periodicals
published by International Organizations; in 1956, first edition
of the Select Bibliography on International Organization and
the first booklet in the collection of "Documents for the study
of International Non-Governmental Relations"; in 1960, first
booklet of the collection "International Congress Science Series";
in 1961, the first volume of the Bibliography of Proceedings of International
Meetings; in 1969, the first document in a series of "UAI
Study Papers".
A special note, because it illustrates certain dangers, should be made
of the calendar of forthcoming international meetings, .published by the
UAI from its foundation and resumed in January 1949. Indeed, an unfortunate
initiative by the Library of Congress in Washington did some harm to the
UAI and might in the long run have forced the latter to discontinue publishing
its calendar despite the connection between this work and the production
of the Yearbook of International Organizations, the Bibliography
of Proceedings, and the magazine. In June 1959, the Library brought
out the first issue of the World List of Future International Meetings,
a calendar almost identical to that of the UAI. The decision was made with
no prior consultation with the UAI in spite of excellent relations previously.
Luckily, that publication ended with the September 1969 issue, without
the UAI being informed on this occasion either.
The UAI viewpoint regarding this venture was explained in the following
commentary published in its November 1969 magazine:
"We expressed the fear that other analogous initiatives at a national
level would lead to complete disorder in information on international
meetings, that such publications would be based on decisions at a national
level only, totally unaffected by the requirements of an international
documentation system. Our major fear concerned the need for continuity
and the protection of the independence of such a publication from the
consequences of abrupt changes in policy within one country."
Apart from publishing, we shall sum up farther on the UAI's working programme.
Here we shall just mention that after the first post-war general assembly
held in Brussels on 5th February 1951, the subsequent ones took place in
Brussels on 8th September 1952, during which Senator Etienne de la Vallée
Poussin was elected President; in Paris on 8th March 1953; in Paris on
9th and 10th June 1955; in Brussels on 3rd and 4th September 1958; in Lausanne
on 14th March 1960; in Brussels on 10th November 1964; in Rome on 16th
November 1962; in Copenhagen on 30th March 1966, during which Mr. F.A.
Casadio was elected President. The next assembly will be held in Barcelona
on 6th May 1970.
Coupled with exchanges of views between international associations on
points of mutual interest, they mark the various stages in the development -- aloof
from political problems and disruptions -- of an organization and
programmeorientated towards positive action as a centre for documentation,
study, services and promotion, covering the precisely defined and fairly
large field of international organizations, meetings and publications.
During the last two years, the problem of computerization has arisen
and that of the forthcoming introduction of yet a third category of international
organizations -- that of the profit-making transnational companies.
Much attention and time has been devoted to examining and preparing for
a modernization of working methods and a consequent adaptation of structures
and programmes implemented by the UAI, bearing in mind the needs and new
dimensions of international affairs.
The year 1971 will usher in a fourth period in the UAI's
existence, as indicated by the articles written by Mr. Robert Fenaux and
Mr. Anthony Judge, to be found elsewhere in this issue.
III. THE SETBACKS
In view of the rather extraordinary part played by the UAI during a period
that constitutes a milestone in history -- for it was that of the
preliminary organization of a new civilization based on international bodies -- we
believe it is interesting to look at the period starting with its 1910
congress in Brussels and ending with its 1924 congress in Geneva and to
see, within the framework of the UAI's general objectives as defined at
the start of this article, which of its aims ended in failure.
We can only list them here as space is lacking for lengthy comments and
explanations. We shall mention these objectives, insofar as possible, by
quoting from a text drawn up by Henri La Fontaine or Paul Otlet who were
undoubtedly the genuine authors of the projects, at a time when there was
no League of Nations, no international school, no World Trade Centre, nor
even any Congress Palace or Centre for the study of international relations,
the oldest of which -- the Royal Institute of International Affairs
in London -- was founded in 1920.
[Setback 1:] The Dual Society (La
double Société)
"As human relations and interests are grouped into divisions that
are territorial in character (States) or according to similar purposes
or functions (Associations), the International Organization, to bear this
in mind, must be a dual one:
the organization of States among themselves: after grouping the interests
based on the territories they administer (national interests), they must
conceive and settle their interests between them by regarding themselves
as members of a League of Nations;
the organization of international associations among themselves: after
the grouping and federation, each in its own field, of the same specialized
interests all over the world (universal interests), they must envision
relations between all those interests and functions, and
form themselves into a confederation: the Union of International Associations.
"These two organizations, while distinct and separate from each other,
must multiply their relations and direct their efforts towards a single
organization that will achieve a balance between the forces concerned by
giving each a proportional share of representation and authority in the
exercise of those functions essential to the management of great collective
interests: deliberation and legislation, jurisdiction and arbitration,
execution and administration. A Constitution or World Charter should be
its expression." (UAI Publication No. 56 , 1913,
p. 11).
[Setback 2:] The International University (L'Université internationale)
This term was launched in 1911 in a booklet of the Central Bureau, in
a chapter entitled "The Organization of an International Form
of Education".
"The International University is aimed at uniting, in one high
educational and cultural movement that is universal in scope, all universities
and international associations. It should permit a certain number of
students to complete their training through initiation into the international,
comparative aspects of all great problems." (UAI publication No.
98, 1921, page 71).
The first session took place in Brussels from 5th to 20th September 1920.
Fifty professors from 11 countries confronted about 100 students from over
10 countries, and gave them 106 hours of lectures broken down into 53 classes
and conferences; the League of Nations and 13 international associations
had special Chairs. During the second session which took place from 20th
August to 5th September 1921, 69 professors dealt with 76 subjects
during 174 classes and lectures.
At that period, the International University was an autonomous body whose
members comprised 15 universities, 346 university professors belonging
to 23 countries, and the international associations which occupied 23 chairs
at the 1921 session.
The International University virtually ceased its activities after the
third session, also held in Brussels from 20th August to 3rd September
1922 (90 lectures by 60 professors from 16 countries) despite a fourth
session held in 1927.
[Setback 3:] The International Library (La
Bibliothèque internationale)
"We have spoken above about the scope and importance of the permanent
investigation which the Central Bureau has organized with particular
reference to the facts of international affairs. Such an investigation
is inconceivable unless it can rest on absolutely accurate documentation.
"This documentation has necessitated the creation of a Bibliography
of Internationalism, a Directory of Documentary Files, and an International
Library. The latter will contain not only all publications issued by
international organizations, but also all those which tend to solve or
facilitate the solution of problems which are international in character." (UAI
publication No. 15, 1911, p. 11)
This objective was implemented in part, as shown by the memorandum of
the Secretary-General of the League of Nations dated 1921, and mentioned
earlier on, From 1897-1910 the International Office of Bibliography organized
four intenational Conferences on Bibliography and published a code of rules,
which has been adopted by a thousand public and private establishments
in various countries.
"The foundation-stone being thus laid, M. La Fontaine and Otlet
set up at Brussels a group of new institutions, a genuine centre of international
documentation. The Universal Index of Bibliography ("Repertoire
bibliographique universel") includes today more than 12,000,000
cards. The International Archives ("Archives Internationales")
which at present contain more than a million documents, and are kept
up-to-date, constitute a genuine documentary encyclopaedia of contemporary
international activities, especially as regards scientific, technical
and sociological questions. The International Library ("Bibliothèque
internationale"), formed by the amalgamation of more than sixty
libraries belonging to various international institutions established
in Brussels, now possesses more than 100,000 volumes and includes the
majority of publications of international interest."
[Setback 4:] International Museum (Le
Musée internationale)
"The aim of the International Museum is to show the progress accomplished
in all subjects in the field of international organizations and the importance,
from the scientific and social standpoint, of the outstanding happenings
connected with the organization."
"If we consider that all the thoughts, all the institutions, all
the tools, everything that mankind has conceived, formulated and achieved
can be used as museum material, planned from an international and comparative
viewpoint, it is easy to realize the scope that can be given to the International
Museum." (UAI Publication No. 15, 1911, pages 51 and 53).
A temporary exhibition was organized on the occasion of the first World
Congress of International Associations in 1910 when the progress made in
all fields of international organization, as well as the needs from which
they arose, were illustrated by graphic and statistical charts. This exhibition
was the fore-runner of an International Museum which, in 1920, occupied
some forty rooms and contained about 14,000 exhibits and documents. It
was divided into five parts: 1) historical; 2) geographic; 3) scientific
and technical; 4) procedure; 5) a comprehensive outline of international
life.
A fairly large number of governments contributed to the national sections
of the geographical part of the Museum.
In addition to the general catalogue of the Museum, a catalogue of the
International Administration Museum was published in 1910, of the bibliography
and documentation section in 1912, on the child welfare section in 1914;
documents on the International Education Museum in 1913, on the establishment
of a Technical Museum in 1914.
At the congress held in June 1913, it was stated that between June 1912
and May 1913, the International Museum had 10,487 visitors.
[Setback 5:] The World Palace -- The
International City (Le Palais Mondial --
La Cité internationale)
Draft plan of the World
Centre for International Associations
which the Belgian Government
was considering building before the first world war on the Mont des
Arts in Brussels.
The project comprised two large lecture-halls at each end of
the building, a public hall in the centre, and,
on the two long
sides of the rectangle, offices for the international associations
and for their joint documentation and bibliographical services
Amongst the resolutions adopted in 1913 by the Second World Congress of
International Associations in which took part delegates of 169 international
associations, that is, almost half the total number, as well as the representatives
of 22 governments, appears the following:
"There is a need to develop on the basis of co-operation, neutrality
and practical utility the International Centre, its services, meetings,
work, publications and collections, along the lines of the plan drawn
up by the Central Bureau and which has already been put into some degree
of execution: Association offices, library, bibliography, archives, museum,
study and instruction, common library, translation and secretarial services.
The International Centre is divided into national sections and special
or comparative sections.
The services and collections of the International Centre should be installed
in a Palace worthy of the importance of the Associations which created
it through their own efforts, and which may become the point of departure
for a group of other international buildings (international City). In
this connection, an appeal must be made to governments and wealthy patrons
for their assistance as well as to the associations themselves" (UAI
Publication No. 56, 1913, p. 35).
The President of the Congress, Minister of State Cooreman who was also
the Chairman of the first International Congress of Administrative Sciences
stated on this point in his opening speech:
"In the final analysis, Gentlemen, the World Palace is intended
to become a common home of all the international associations; this hospitable
mansion should therefore be international in character, interest and
utilization. Does it not therefore seem both rational and just that the
financial contribution to its establishment, arrangement and maintenance
should also be international?
Gentlemen, you well know what suspicion and war cost a nation; you know
how all people sigh for the lightening of their intolerable burden and
the heavy fiscality which weighs upon them. You also know the demands
of the present situation and the serious difficulties which have arisen
in the path of the pacifist movement. Would it not be more comforting
to the universal conscience to see legislators and governments meeting
from one country to another and collaborate in building this World Palace
which is destined to become the hearth of this work of concord, rapprochement
and co-operation known as the Union of International Associations.
It is unnecessary to add that, to sit down at this hearth, nobody -- no
person, no government, no nation -- would have to abdicate one jot
or tittle of their personality, independence or liberty. The hearth would
be wide enough to shelter both the autonomy of each and the solidarity
of all." (UAI Publication No. 56, 1913, page 36).
In fact, the project was already an old one, and had been stimulated
in 1907 by Andrew Carnegie's offer to build the Peace Palace in The Hague.
On 21st December 1907, at the inauguration of the new headquarters of
the Central Office at No. 3bis, rue de la Regence, in Brussels,
Baron Descamps, Minister of Sciences and Arts in Belgium, past-president
and "rapporteur" of the Committee of Arbitration at the first
Peace Conference at The Hague in 1899, confirmed in his speech the Belgian
government's project for a constitution for the future palaces to be erected
on the Mont des Arts and its intention to reserve premises for international
institutions in the building complex which was intended to be as big as
the Brussels Palais de Justice and for which the model and the plans had
already been made.
A certain amount of rivalry for the title "International Capital" was
already apparent between The Hague, Brussels and Berne which were in 1907
the three main host-towns for international organizations, in spite of
the declarations on the need for a "functional centralization" rather
than a "material centralization".
We cannot recall here all the phases of the persistent efforts made chiefly
by Paul Otlet, aimed at the fulfilment of the project for a World Palace
and that of an "extra-territorial international city" as an "Integral
Capital of the League of Nations"...
"a new city to be created which would fill, in international life,
the same function as that which Washington assigned to the town which
bears his name, when he laid the foundations in the Federal District
of Columbia" as Paul Otlet wrote in 1919 (UAI Publication No.
88, 1919, page 27).
In this same pamphlet of 1919 -- twenty years before Mussolini built
the Rome congress centre, the first of its kind, Paul Otlet suggested the
construction of permanent buildings within the framework of the "World
Intellectual Centre" to serve the League of Nations, which would be
ready to accommodate large meetings and would be equipped so as to cut
down the expenses of these meetings, and make them more regular and more
efficient.
From 1912 to 1932, these projects, centred first on Brussels, then on
Geneva and Antwerp, were explained by the UAI in seventeen pamphlets. These
contain detailed plans, established by architects of renown and of various
countries, such as Hendrik Anderson and Hebrard (World Communication Centre
in Brussels) in 1912; Francotte (The League of Nations Palace and the International
Associations palace in the Park of Woluwe in Brussels) in 1920; Le Corbusier
and P. Jeanneret (Mundaneum at Geneva in collaboration with Paul Otlet)
in 1928.
A "skeleton" of the projected World Palace, comprising 100
rooms, existed in Brussels for a few years after the first World War. Sited
in the park of the Cinquantenaire, in a structure put up in 1880 at the
time of the 50th anniversary of the State of Belgium, on a plot of some
2.5 acres, and completed for the 75th anniversary, this palace lodged the
various services and establishments of the UAI mentioned above, as well
as the headquarters of several other international associations.
[Setback 6:] Clearing Office (Office
de compensation)
Another attempt, belonging to the third period, can also be mentioned
quickly among the setbacks.
Despite the desire of the UAI executives to restrict the programme to
what was possible, in 1950 it seemed desirable to find some way of solving
the difficulties which the non-governmental international associations
encountered with regard to their movements of capital at a time of currency
exchange restrictions.
The constitution of a Clearing Office for the transfer of NGO funds, by
opening a special UAI account at the Bank of International Settlements,
seemed to provide a possible solution.
An agreement in principle to the opening of such an account was obtained,
and on 4th May 1951 a circular and a questionnaire were sent out by the
UAI to all the international associations. But by the time the system had
been worked out and the prior agreement of the authorities in each country
obtained, the exchange restrictions slackened and the project was abandoned.
For organizations and individuals alike, setbacks and failures are often
instructive and sometimes praiseworthy.
They can be due sometimes to the choice of a wrong target or one that
is premature, obsolete, too vast; they can be due to inadequate working
methods, personal conflicts, and even more frequently to the insufficiency
of material means.
As was the case for the 3rd Peace Conference, due to take place in The
Hague in 1915, and the 3rd World Congress of International Associations
scheduled for 1915 also in San Francisco, war too affects institutions
and people alike. Whatever the reason for the failure of the projects we
have just enumerated, the latter cannot help but stimulate our admiration
for the vision of international organization which the UAI founders already
had some sixty years ago.
IV. THE ACHIEVEMENTS
In life there are visible things and invisible things, and the latter
are often the more important.
For the UAI, as for many other bodies, dozens of pages would not be sufficient
to relate, as a historian, the achievements -- a word taken in the
sense of effective activities, even though this term too might cover objectives
that are impossible to achieve, which is quite another matter from setbacks
or failures.
Indeed, just as parents pursue the impossible aim of bringing up perfect
children, or as a gardener works endlessly to transform nature and discipline
it to a fine orderly display, so the UAI has devoted a great deal of time
and trouble to the advancement of the social order and to the speeding
up of a process of evolution.
Some tangible achievements can certainly be noted; facts, names, dates
and figures can be given. Prior to 1915 the UAI had published, over and
above the 3,200 pages of its magazine La Vie Internationale,
exactly 94 books and booklets totalling 10,147 pages. Between the two wars,
there were 59 books and booklets totalling 2,225 pages. Since it resumed
work in October 1948, and up to the end of 1969, it had published 68 works
totalling 19,874 pages apart from the 15,286 pages of its magazine International
Associations, with all that this volume entails of precise objectives,
meetings of all kinds, collaboration with outside bodies, plus all the
necessary teamwork at the production level.
But we are not seeking to draw up a balance sheet of UAI achievements:
it would be as boring to compile as to read. We shall try in the course
of a few brief lines to assess its action in favour of progress, and its
influence on a process of evolution.
This puts one in mind of a thought expressed by Paul Claudel: "To
be like a man carrying a candle, who illuminates the entire procession".
This might have been said about the UAI:
1) [Achievement: Recommendations]
Although the Peace Conference of 1919 and the Covenant of the
League of Nations gave no official recognition to the purposes of the
Union of International Associations, one of the founders of the organization,
Henri Lafontaine of Belgium, eloquently urged the First Assembly of the
League to provide facilities for information and centres of collaboration
for exchanging the intellectual work of all nations. Impressed by this
argument, the Assembly turned the matter over to the Council, and on
May 15th 1922 the Council appointed a twelve-man committee (later increased
to fifteen) entitled the Intellectual Co-operation Committee.
This excerpt from a book by Gerard J. Mangone, A Short History of
International Organization (1954, page 239), illustrates
an initial series of achievements, namely: the suggestions or recommendations
made by the UAI in its capacity as pioneer in those fields where no organized
co-operation yet existed. These recommendations, especially before 1914,
often aimed at the creation of the necessary bodies which, once founded,
quite often soon forgot those who had charted their route. There
are many instances of this.
In other cases, they aimed at the need to consider an existing situation
which had more or less escaped the attention of the authorities concerned.
A fairly recent example is that of international congresses, the importance
of which had to be stressed by the UAI in a number of written works and
at meetings between 1950 and 1960 before it aroused the attention -- which
has today become almost over-exaggerated -- of States and municipalities
as well as professional and economic organizations.
A similar instance, but one which is still making its way, is the attention
which the UAI has for several years been trying to attract to the importance,
from every angle including the economic, to the host countries of welcoming
the head-quarters of
Ten encyclopaedic documentary archives installed in the
Nassau Chapel on the Mont des Arts Brussels in 1912
international non-governmental organizations. Most of those governments and
municipalities still believe that they represent a burden; in a few years
from now they will be trying to attract them with every possible blandishment,
as is currently the case for international congresses. And then, on the plane
of material constructions, we shall witness the blossoming of beautiful international
houses alongside the congress centres, and on the plane of legal developments,
the enactment of legislation in favour of the juridical entity of the international
non-governmental organizations, those international outlaws of our day. Obviously
the aim of the UAI in such promotional action -- and this too clarifies
what it is doing and what it is seeking to do -- is to contribute in
providing the international associations with all the instruments necessary
for their work.
2) [Achievement: Documentation of international studies]:
A second group of achievements comprises the aid extended by the UAI in the
study of international relations, after deserving most of the credit for having
initiated it.
"In its immediate consequences, the most important contribution made
by the Union of International Associations was probably the impetus it gave
to the proper documentation of international studies," wrote Professor
F.S. Lyons of Dublin University in 1963, in his book Internationalism
in Europe 1815-1914 (page 206).
It should be specified that since 1948, the UAI has intentionally restricted
itself to international organization in the proper sense.
Concerning the Yearbook
of International Organizations, the magazine International Affairs wrote: "This
is the only reference book giving reliable and up-to-date information on both
inter-governmental and non-governmental international organizations"; Le
Monde Diplomatique: "L'ouvrage se recommande a tous les specialistes
de la politique internationale"; Yearbook of World Affairs: "A
godsend to administrators and their secretaries"; Die Tat: "Dem
Journalisten und Politiker ist das "Yearbook" ein unentbehrliches
Nachschlagewerk"; International Association of Universities Bulletin: "University
circles will particularly appreciate the vast documentation on international
organizations in the innumerable scientific fields"; International
Council of Scientific Unions Bulletin: "Indispensable for
all concerned with international work"; Ergonomics: "Every
Embassy, Foundation, research council, library and Government agency concerned
with international affairs should have at least one copy of the Yearbook for
ready reference and a second copy for leisure moments."
Concerning the International Congress Calendar, the magazine Professional
Engineer states: "A must for any good industrial library" and
the Indian and Eastern Engineer writes: "The subject
and geographical indexes which are provided in the volume offer fascinating
clues as to the variety of interests which are catered for at international
meetings, as well as to their world-wide distribution".
Concerning the Select Bibliography on International
Organization, the appreciation
of the Bulletin des Bibliothèques de France is as follows: "Un
ouvrage de references indispensable pour l'étude de l'organisation internationale".
We
apologise for these quotations taken from among so many, but after having indicated
above the truly impressive number of works published by the UAI, it was also
necessary to indicate that the quality of those works had met with universal
approval, as is also shown by the fact that nine-tenths of the UAI budget is
now covered by its publications.
This preliminary achievement in the sphere of studies connected with international
organization, represented by the publication and distribution of the reference
books essential to those studies, demands considerable work and it is impossible
to overstress the competency and dedication of those who amass, collate and
compile the material.
So we should like to say how necessary it is that everyone should participate
in, support and even protect this work of documentation and information. The
time has indeed come to react against far too many counterfeit editions of
the UAI's reference books. Their authors, or rather their publishers, are merely
seeking cheap mercantile results, for it is certainly easy to insert notices
on international organizations which have been filched from the UAI Yearbook
in other directories that were formerly limited to listing cultural or educational
bodies, in national administrative yearbooks and other directories, or to publish
congress calendars lifted bodily from that of the UAI.
For the future, work is proceeding for the purpose of endowing the UAI with
the full capacity permitted by computerization, and this will enable the information
and documentation services already rendered to be increased enormously. The
article written by the man in charge of the project, Mr. Anthony Judge, dispenses
me from going into the matter here.
3) [Achievement: Study of international non-governmental organization]:
Apart from the permanent inventory of international organizations and their
work, the UAI programme involves a study of them. As we shall see in a moment,
this has largely centred on the legal, administrative and technical problems
common to international non-governmental organizations. But it was also directed
towards the general theory of international organization and its sociology,
as is sufficiently demonstrated in the first pages of this article. In recent
years, alongside studies pertaining to the structure and functioning of international
organizations, work has been done on their classification, their role in society,
relations between the inter-governmental bodies and the international non-governmental
organizations, and on the future of the latter.
In 1956/1957, with financial aid from Unesco, the UAI set up a study
group for the purpose of establishing a plan for evaluating international non-governmental
organizations, and published the report written on this work by Professor Jean
Meynaud.
An effort has been made in favour of reforming university teaching on the subject
of international relations. The question of national participation in the work
of the INGO's also retained its attention, with particular emphasis on the
problem of participation by the newly independent African states. On
this subject Roger Savary, Secretary-General of the International Federation
of Agricultural Producers, wrote in 1961:
The Sixties will see an extraordinary widening of the scope and activities
of international co-operation, the scale of which has just been radically
altered by the accession to independence of the African nations. But the
participation of the governments of the new States in the work of official
international authorities is now paving the way for that of their elite in
the exchanges, so fruitful and so necessary, ensured by the private international
associations. This organizational phenomenon at government level, which is
not yet backed by close contacts between the citizens of the countries concerned,
runs counter to the developments which led to the blossoming of international
co-operation among the nations whose economic development is of longer standing...
The search for a solution to these difficulties will place an even heavier
burden on the UAI (International Associations, January
1961, page 8).
We shall not linger over the type of UAI achievement which now embraces the
study of transnational companies as the new third category of international
organizations, since this aspect has been dealt with in other articles.
Yet we believe it is necessary to make three comments.
Firstly, the relations already established between the UAI and certain
universities reveal some very interesting prospects, but also involve an
extra burden of work for the UAI.
Secondly, relations could be developed between the UAI and the national
centres of international relations, especially when the time comes for those
centres to study not only the political and legal aspects of international
affairs, but also their sociological and administrative angles.
Thirdly, in order to extend its programme of studies, to continue it in
co-operation with the universities and international relations study centres,
and to exploit the data which can be supplied by its future computerized
information service, the UAI will have to find other sources of income.
At the end of 1950 Dr. Rene Sand wrote:
'The science and technique of internationalism, international politics,
international law, international economy, international mutual and, international
health -- all these, in order to develop on solid foundations, are waiting
for the birth of an international sociology, psychology and biology of which
as yet we do not possess even the rudiments. The UAI has great work to do
in this respect.
Is not this notion still fully valid today?
4) [Achievement: Improvement of the tool set of international associations]: By
means of varied initiatives: studies, meetings, publications, recommendations,
the UAI has helped the international non-governmental organisations to perfect
their tools. This work, which no organization can carry out alone or which
it would be ridiculous for each to attempt separately, dates back to the origins
of the UAI and is still going on.
One of the first objectives which the UAI set itself was to obtain a legal
international status for INGO's. A draft international agreement
was worked
out by the UAI in 1910. In 1959 another project was submitted to Unesco, and
the UAI's collaboration was recently extended to the Council of Europe which
is contemplating the possibility of establishing such a status for INGO's at
the European level.
In this connection, we should recall that the Belgian law of 25th October
1919 granting a legal entity to international scientific associations -- the
only piece of legislation in the world related solely to INGO's and the scope
of which, after four years of efforts, we managed to get extended by the law
of 6th December 1964 -- was due to the efforts made from 1906 onwards
by the founders of the UAI, who wished to see its scope of application internationalized
in due course through the implementation of Article 9 of that law.
Another example of a completely different kind is the Colour Code of Language
Classification, studied and proposed by the UAI in order to facilitate the
pinpointing of working documents of international congresses. Regarding these,
we should mention the five international congresses on congress organization,
held between 1959 and 1970.
Among our publications and the articles which have appeared in International
Associations, many are of a technical nature, such as the manuals dealing
with congress organization and the INGO Administration Manual which is now
in preparation. Studies have been made on the types of structures, publications,
methods of disseminating the results accruing from the work of INGO's, etc.
A special programme was put in hand in recent years regarding the staff of
the international non-governmental organizations for the purpose of integrating
them in a genuine career in the private "international civil service".
A study ending in practical recommendations was carried out two years ago in
connection with an international complementary pension scheme for INGO staff.
The first seminar for INGO executive training was held in Turin in October
1969.
Dr. John Rees, Director of the World Federation of Mental Health, wrote in
1958: "In the Union of International Associations, I see a technical,
regulating organization in the international field. Its publications and meetings
have made a substantial contribution to the accomplishment of this task. No
other body has tackled it."
5) [Achievement: Information services]: The activities of
the service centre deserve a mention, for requests for information, advice
and help of all kinds take up quite a lot of the UAI's time. They range from
a mere telephone call to a stay lasting several weeks by research workers or
students. They come from every possible source, both official and private,
international and national, scientific or commercial. They involve equally
varied work ranging from a letter, through an interview lasting several hours,
to contracts covering nearly a month's work.
It would be desirable to extend even further the activities of this sort
of clearing-house or intermediary organization. We are thinking particularly
of the part the UAI might play in advising university professors and students
in search of a thesis subject or other reference material on those questions
which the international associations would like to see studied, and on which
they have plenty of documentation but not the necessary university collaborators.
6) [Achievement: Consolidation of the private sector]: Before
concluding this already long survey of the effective work of the UAI, I must
mention another achievement -- the most important of all to our mind,
even though it belongs to what we might call the world of invisible things.
This is the consolidation, and we might even say the defence of the international
private sector, which may come to be the main support of the national private
sectors to an increasing extent.
The root of the problem has been sufficiently defined in the article by Mr.
Etienne de la Vallée Poussin and by what I myself said at the beginning
of this very article concerning the general aims of the UAI.
By the whole range of its work of documentation, studies, service and promotion,
throughout the whole span of the last sixty years, it has attempted to disseminate
a better knowledge and understanding of the scope and value of the international
private sector, to study its weaknesses as well, to develop its effectiveness,
increase the use of the INGO's technical competence and influence on public
opinion, to underline the complementary character of the public and private
sectors, and to promote co-operation between them.
Furthermore, special publications have been issued by the UAI for this purpose;
for instance, in 1960, International Co-operation
and You by Mr.
Louis Verniers, which appeared in four languages; in 1962 Freedom
of Association -- a study of the role of international non-governmental
organizations in the development process of emerging countries, by James E. Knott.
A project involving a poster for UN Headquarters, designed to visualize the
INGO's contribution to the work of the United Nations was put forward by the
UAI in December 1959 with the help of the artist Jacques Lendot.
The UAI stimulated and then helped with the compilation of memoranda and
university theses on INGO's, and with having them reviewed in studies on international
organization.
Today, it may be said that every new book dealing with international organization
uses the information and statistics published by the UAI, and quite often reflects
its point of view on the role of INGO's, which were hardly ever mentioned in
any works that appeared between 1925 and 1960.
LA C HARTE
DES
INTERETS INTELLECTUELS and MORAUX
MEMORANDUM
adressés a MM. les Délégués
de
la Conférence de la Paix, a Paris
l'Union des Associations Internationales
BRUXELLES-PARIS
Février 1919
V. CONCLUSIONS
Without the UAI's work, both recent and in the past, the international nongovernmental
organizations would not, as a group, occupy the important place they now have
in the thinking of research workers and of the officials responsible for public
international affairs.If the UAI did not exist, it would
have to be created. Since it exists, it must be able to secure the means necessary
for its present work and its future requirements.
For a long time many international associations did not grasp the fact that
they had so much in common that it was essential for a body like the UAI to
exist. In this, they reflected a trend of thought current in the outside world.
Many people thought that there was no common denominator or reason for associations
pursuing different aims and active in different fields to co-operate with each
other.
This stage is more or less behind us now, and everybody is aware that the
same rule applies to the group formed by the international associations as
it does to other groups: those of manual workers, industrialists, traders,
etc. -- a group which has a definite function in human society, along
with a common methodology and future despite the internal diversity of its
work, output and members. But should we not look even farther ahead, in view
of the prospects and possible developments bound up with the internationalization
of this world of ours and the structures and circuits which may develop in
consequence?
At the crossroads between the individual, the power of the great international
bureaucracies of the family of nations, and the might of the giant transnational
business enterprises, the international non-governmental associations -- the
working or middle classes of international co-operation -- may, if they
secure the indispensable support of the States, transnational companies and
foundations, become the initiators of genuine progress in an environment which
must remain human.
As is stressed in the working document of the Conference of International Associations
held by the UAI in Geneva on 8th and 9th September 1924:
Generally speaking, the International Associations are called upon
to play the same part in international affairs as the National Associations
play in the internal affairs of each nation...
International affairs are quite another thing from diplomatic negotiations
and the often perilous competition of powers. They are also compounded of
the vast activity of mankind -- individuals, groups and nations -- activity
on such a scale that it cannot be confined within the narrow limitations
of political boundaries...
In every age, progress has been due to the convergent action of three
dynamic forces: the greatly gifted individuals who discover and create; the
free groups which organize and stimulate; and the official authorities who,
acting through their administrative offices, generalize and impose those
measures. It seems that every civilization which seeks to disregard one of
those three forces will not progress but fall behind...
