« The League of Nations as an organization for technical, economic, social and humanitarian cooperation » : différence entre les versions

De Baripedia
 
(24 versions intermédiaires par le même utilisateur non affichées)
Ligne 2 : Ligne 2 :
  |image=
  |image=
  |image_caption=
  |image_caption=
  |cours= [[Diplomatie multilatérale et organisations internationales]]
  |cours= [[Multilateral diplomacy and international organizations]]
  |faculté=
  |faculté=
  |département=
  |département=
  |professeurs=[[Sacha Zala]]<ref>[https://www.dodis.ch/fr/portrait/groupe-de-recherche/sacha-zala Profil de Sacha Zala sur Documents Diplomatiques Suisses]</ref><ref>[http://www.zala.ch/cv/CV_Zala.pdf CV de Sacha Zala]</ref><ref>[https://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sacha_Zala&oldid=189708391 Profil wikipedia de Sacha Zala]</ref><ref>[http://www.hist.unibe.ch/ueber_uns/personen/zala_sacha/index_ger.html Profil de Sacha Zala sur le site de l'Université de Berne]</ref><ref>[https://www.zala.ch/ Site personnel de Sacha Zala]</ref>
  |professeurs=[[Sacha Zala]]<ref>[https://www.dodis.ch/fr/portrait/groupe-de-recherche/sacha-zala Profil de Sacha Zala sur Documents Diplomatiques Suisses]</ref><ref>[http://www.zala.ch/cv/CV_Zala.pdf CV de Sacha Zala]</ref><ref>[https://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sacha_Zala&oldid=189708391 Profil wikipedia de Sacha Zala]</ref><ref>[http://www.hist.unibe.ch/ueber_uns/personen/zala_sacha/index_ger.html Profil de Sacha Zala sur le site de l’Université de Berne]</ref><ref>[https://www.zala.ch/ Site personnel de Sacha Zala]</ref>
  |enregistrement=
  |enregistrement=
  |lectures=
  |lectures=
*[[Introduction au cours de diplomatie multilatérale et organisations internationales]]
*[[Introduction to the Multilateral Diplomacy and International Organizations Course]]
*[[Les débuts de la gestion du système internationale : le concert européen et le nouvel internationalisme]]
*[[The beginnings of the management of the international system: the European concert and the new internationalism]]
*[[Aux origines de la Société des Nations]]
*[[The origins of the League of Nations]]
*[[La paix de Paris et la Société des Nations]]
*[[The Peace of Paris and the League of Nations]]
*[[La Société des Nations comme organisation pour la coopération technique, économique, sociale et humanitaire]]
*[[The League of Nations as an organization for technical, economic, social and humanitarian cooperation]]
*[[La Société des Nations et la sécurité internationales : 1920 – 1939]]
*[[The League of Nations and International Security: 1920 - 1939]]
*[[La naissance de l’Organisation des Nations Unies]]
*[[The birth of the United Nations]]
*[[L’ONU et la Guerre froide de 1945 à 1973 : crises et coopérations]]
*[[The United Nations and the Cold War from 1945 to 1973: crises and cooperation]]
*[[L’ONU et la sécurité internationale : 1945 – 2013]]
*[[The United Nations and international security: 1945 - 2013]]
}}
}}


Ligne 27 : Ligne 27 :
{{Translations
{{Translations
| fr = La Société des Nations comme organisation pour la coopération technique, économique, sociale et humanitaire
| fr = La Société des Nations comme organisation pour la coopération technique, économique, sociale et humanitaire
| es =  
| es = La Sociedad de las Naciones como organización de cooperación técnica, económica, social y humanitaria
}}
}}


= Main organs of the League of Nations =
= Main organs of the League of Nations =
Il y a le Conseil, l’Assemblée, le Secrétariat, des organes subsidiaires politique et technique ainsi que des organismes reliés à la Société des Nations. Le but de la Société des Nations est d’essayer d’empêcher la guerre. Le but est d’encourager la coopération entre les Nations, de garantir la sécurité internationale en vue de la préservation de la paix mondiale. Cela devait régler non seulement les conflits internationaux et les dangers qui leur étaient liés, mais aussi les troubles latents. La Société des Nations était un élargissent vers une organisation universelle et était moins orientée vers l’Europe que ne l’avait été le Concert européen. L’organisation de la Société des Nations obligeait l’ouverture vers toute nation civilisée. Pour être admis dans la Société des Nations, il n’était pas nécessaire d’être complètement souverain comme les dominions. Être européen n’était pas une condition préalable. L’absence des États-Unis va être décisive pour l’histoire de la Société des Nations faisant en en faisant une organisation qui n’arrive pas à être universelle.
There are the Council, the Assembly, the Secretariat, political and technical subsidiary bodies as well as bodies related to the League of Nations. The purpose of the League of Nations is to try to prevent war. The aim is to encourage cooperation between nations, to guarantee international security with a view to preserving world peace. This was intended to address not only international conflicts and the dangers associated with them, but also latent unrest. The League of Nations was a broadening towards a universal organization and was less oriented towards Europe than the European Concert had been. The organization of the League of Nations obliged the opening towards any civilized nation. To be admitted to the League of Nations, it was not necessary to be completely sovereign like the dominions. Being European was not a prerequisite. The absence of the United States will be decisive for the history of the League of Nations making it an organization that cannot be universal.


L’organisation est comparable avec la structure de l’ONU avec des membres permanents et non permanents au Conseil, une Assemblée et une Cour de justice. Il n’y avait pas de droit de véto pour la Société des Nations ou autrement dit tout le monde avait un droit de véto puisque le concept était un État égal une voix. Le système de la Société des Nations était bien plus que seulement une organisation centrale. Il y avait de riches mouvements internationaux formés avant la guerre qui ont été intégrés dans la Société des Nations en tant qu’organisation technique. C’est un élément nouveau du XXème siècle. Le Conseil devait mettre sur pied la Cour internationale de justice à l’article 14 de la Charte et constituée à La Haye en 1920.
The organization is comparable to the UN structure with permanent and non-permanent members in the Council, an Assembly and a Court of Justice. There was no veto power for the League of Nations or in other words everyone had a veto power since the concept was an equal state with one vote. The League of Nations system was much more than just a central organization. There were rich international movements formed before the war that were integrated into the League of Nations as a technical organization. It is a new element of the 20th century. The Council was to establish the International Court of Justice under Article 14 of the Charter, which was established in The Hague in 1920.


La Suisse s’engage afin qu’elle ne soit pas intégrée dans le réseau de la Société des Nations. Cela tient du fait que l’exclusion initiale des empires centraux était vue comme la preuve que la Société des Nations n’était pas neutre. Ce manque de neutralité était vu comme un problème faisant que la Suisse essaie de garder les anciens réseaux en dehors de la Société des Nations, cela permet aussi à la Suisse de garder un contrôle sur l’ancien système de relations internationales qui lui permettait de garder un contrôle sur le système administratif. Après le pacte de Locarno de 1925, il y a une détente, mais cela ne change pas le regard concernant l’intégration des anciens réseaux. Il y a toute sorte d’autres organisations internationales qui ne faisaient pas partie de la Société des Nations et qui vont s’établir à Genève. Il y a donc le système de la Société des Nations, mais aussi un système parallèle d’organisations et de bureaux internationaux qui est un système gouvernemental, mais pas intégré dans la Société des Nations. C’est l’une des différences les plus substantielles entre le système de la diplomatie multilatérale entre les deux guerres et ce qui va se mettre en place après la Deuxième guerre mondiale avec l’établissement de Nations Unies qui va intégrer avec succès les vieux réseaux internationaux du XIXème siècle.
Switzerland is committed to ensuring that it is not integrated into the League of Nations network. This is because the initial exclusion of central empires was seen as proof that the League of Nations was not neutral. This lack of neutrality was seen as a problem whereby Switzerland tries to keep the old networks outside the League of Nations, it also allows Switzerland to keep control over the old system of international relations which allowed it to keep control over the administrative system. After the Locarno Pact of 1925, there was a relaxation, but this did not change the view of the integration of the old networks. There are all kinds of other international organizations that were not part of the League of Nations and will be based in Geneva. There is therefore the League of Nations system, but also a parallel system of international organizations and offices which is a governmental system, but not integrated into the League of Nations. This is one of the most substantial differences between the multilateral diplomacy system between the two wars and what will be put in place after the Second World War with the establishment of the United Nations, which will successfully integrate the old international networks of the 19th century.


La Société des Nations a ouvert un chapitre nouveau dans l’histoire des organisations internationales étant donné qu’elle avait un système autonome signifiant que le secrétariat à Genève avait un statut égal à celui d’une ambassade. Selon Madeleine Herren, les deux éléments nouveaux étaient l’élargissement du système de la politique internationale et le début de l’intégration d’États qui n’étaient pas encore souverains. Il y a un très fort élargissement de la politique internationale. D’autre part, il y a le changement de la fonction de la diplomatie. Par rapport à l’ancienne diplomatie secrète du type de Conseil européen, l’instrument de la négociation est devenu un moyen de convaincre et d’effectuer de la propagande publique multilatérale. Il y a l’établissement d’un vrai discours international.
The League of Nations opened a new chapter in the history of international organizations as it had an autonomous system meaning that the secretariat in Geneva had a status equal to that of an embassy. According to Madeleine Herren, the two new elements were the expansion of the international political system and the beginning of the integration of states that were not yet sovereign. There is a very strong expansion of international politics. On the other hand, there is the change in the function of diplomacy. Compared to the former secret diplomacy of the European Council type, the instrument of negotiation has become a means of convincing and carrying out multilateral public propaganda. There is the establishment of a real international discourse.


== Le Conseil ==
== The Council ==


[[Image:séance du Conseil de la Société des Nations.jpg|thumb|Une séance du Conseil de la Société des Nations.]]
[[Image:séance du Conseil de la Société des Nations.jpg|thumb|A meeting of the Council of the League of Nations.]]


Le Conseil avait en principe les mêmes compétences que l’Assemblée avec des membres permanents et non permanents. Était prévu comme membre permanent des États prestigieux, la Grande-Bretagne, la France, l’Italie et le Japon. Les membres non permanents devaient être élus par l’Assemblée avec, le Brésil, la Belgique, la Grèce et l’Espagne. Le vote a lieu régulièrement jusqu’à la dissolution de la Société des Nations. Après le désistement des États-Unis, les membres permanents n’étaient plus que quatre. En 1936, l’Allemagne quitte la Société des Nations, en 1937 c’est l’Italie et en 1939, l’URSS est expulsée. De 1939 avant la grande crise de la Deuxième Guerre mondiale, seule la Grande-Bretagne et la France avaient le statut de membre permanent montrant en quoi la Société est extrêmement faible et ne peut rien faire pour éviter la Deuxième Guerre mondiale. Plusieurs penseurs et politiciens ont souligné l’importance des rencontres régulières. Ce postulat des rencontres régulières a été réalisé avec le Conseil de la Société des Nations ce qui fut un développement important au regard de l’ancien système du Concert européen.
In principle, the Council had the same powers as the Assembly with permanent and non-permanent members. Was planned as a permanent member of the prestigious states, Great Britain, France, Italy and Japan. The non-permanent members were to be elected by the Assembly together with Brazil, Belgium, Greece and Spain. Voting shall take place regularly until the dissolution of the League of Nations. After the withdrawal of the United States, the permanent members were reduced to four. In 1936, Germany left the League of Nations, in 1937 it was Italy and in 1939, the USSR was expelled. From 1939 before the great crisis of the Second World War, only Great Britain and France had permanent membership status showing why the Society is extremely weak and can do nothing to avoid the Second World War. Several thinkers and politicians stressed the importance of regular meetings. This assumption of regular meetings was made with the Council of the League of Nations, which was an important development in relation to the former European Concert system.


== L’Assemblée ==
== The Assembly ==
The Assembly was competent for all areas related to the issue of world and technical peace. All countries had one seat and one vote, in reality, there were always three representatives per country who had one vote. The Assembly questioned the principle of sovereignty. This was an important step towards the reform of the British Empire and on the issue of decolonization. Originally, the League of Nations consisted of 42 members, 32 victorious states and 10 neutral states. 22 additional states were admitted, including Germany in 1926 and the USSR in 1934. The withdrawal from the League of Nations could be made at any time, but effective after two years. Between 1922 and 1934, there were 20 States that withdrew from the League of Nations. When Hitler came to power, he left the League of Nations, fascist Italy following the Ethiopian crisis and Japan, which also had an authoritarian regime. There was also the exclusion of the Soviet Union.


L’Assemblée était compétente pour tous les domaines liés à la question de la paix mondiale et technique. Tous les pays possédaient un siège et une voix, en réalité, il y avait toujours trois représentants par pays qui avait une voix. L’Assemblée remettait en cause le principe de la souveraineté. C’était un pas important en vue de la réforme de l’Empire britannique et sur la question de la décolonisation. À l’origine, la Société de Nations était composée de 42 membres à savoir 32 États victorieux et 10 États neutres. 22 États supplémentaires vont être admis avec notamment l’Allemagne en 1926 et l’URSS en 1934. Le retrait de la Société des Nations pouvait être fait à tout moment, mais prenant effet après deux ans. Entre 1922 et 1934, il y a eu 20 États qui se sont retirés de la Société des Nations. Lorsque Hitler arrive au pouvoir, il quitte la Société des Nations, l’Italie fasciste suite à la crise éthiopienne ainsi que le Japon qui a aussi un régime autoritaire. Il y a eu aussi l’exclusion de l’Union soviétique.
Despite the fact that the League of Nations opened the public prosecutor's office for international relations to all kinds of countries that were not European, despite its very vast scope, the League of Nations has never succeeded in achieving the universality that has made it weak. On the one hand, the League of Nations goes beyond the limits of Europe and is not really able to be universal. Unlike the UN Council, the permanent members did not have veto power, and unanimity was required, as was unanimity in the Assembly. It is this procedure that has been criticized most often. This unanimity rule corresponded to the rules of public international law. Moreover, given the composition of the League of Nations, this was democratic, giving weight to small States and those that had not yet achieved independence. As a result, States remained sovereign. The only time States had to renounce their sovereignty was the renunciation of the law of war. War is from the moral point of view a legitimate continuation of politics, but it must comply with the rules of the pact. It was only in the context of mediation that Article 15, which provided for unanimity, was not necessary. In the case of conflicts, a majority vote was sufficient to recommend a peaceful settlement.


Malgré le fait que la Société des Nations a ouvert le parquet des relations internationales à toute sorte de pays qui n’étaient pas européens, malgré sa très vaste étendue, la Société des Nations n’a jamais réussi à atteindre l’universalité qui l’a rendu faible. D’un côté, la Société des Nations dépasse les limites de l’Europe et elle n’arrive pas vraiment à être universelle. Contrairement au Conseil de l’ONU, les membres permanents ne possédaient pas de droit de véto, une unanimité devait être requise tout comme à l’Assemblée. C’est cette procédure qui a été critiquée le plus souvent. Cette règle de l’unanimité correspondait aux règles du droit international public. De plus, au vu de la composition de la Société des Nations, cela était démocratique accordant un poids aux petits États et à ceux qui n’avaient pas encore obtenu leur indépendance. De ce fait, les États restaient souverains. Le seul moment où les États devaient renoncer à leur souveraineté était le renoncement au droit de la guerre. La guerre est du point de vue moral reste une continuation légitime de la politique, mais doit se mettre dans les règles prévues par le pacte. C’est seulement dans le cadre de médiation que l’article 15 qui prévoyait l’unanimité n’était pas nécessaire. Dans le cas des conflits, il suffisait un vote majoritaire pour recommander un règlement pacifique.
== Secretariat ==


== Secrétariat ==
The Secretary-General was active in various sectors. Until the war, secretaries-general were typically from Great Britain or France. The officials in Geneva were from all Member States and owed their allegiance to the League of Nations and not to their State of origin. The logic of national belonging nevertheless remained important. Officials could not accept anything from his own state and were not allowed to propagate for his own state. The secretariat operated according to the rules of the European administration and more precisely according to the rules of the English administration.


Le secrétaire général était actif dans différents secteurs. Jusqu’à la guerre, les secrétaires généraux étaient typiquement issus de la Grande-Bretagne ou de la France. Les fonctionnaires à Genève étaient issus de tous les États membres et devaient toute leur allégeance à la Société des Nations et non pas à leur État d’origine. La logique d’appartenance nationale restait tout de même importante. Les fonctionnaires ne pouvaient rien accepter de son propre État et n’étaient pas autorisé à faire de la propagande pour son propre État. Le secrétariat fonctionnait selon les règles de l’administration européenne et plus précisément selon les règles de l’administration anglaise.
[[Fichier:Bundesarchiv Bild 102-13009, Eric Drummond.jpg|thumb|upright|200px|Eric Drummond in 1932.]]


[[Fichier:Bundesarchiv Bild 102-13009, Eric Drummond.jpg|thumb|upright|200px|Eric Drummond en 1932.]]
The first secretary was Sir Eric Drummond, who was established directly at the Paris conference. The maintenance of the secretariat was assumed by all member States and the financial distribution of costs was made through the cost allocation key already established in the organization of the Universal Postal Union. The Universal Postal Union is now a specialized agency of the United Nations, but it was not part of the League of Nations either because of Swiss reluctance. The Geneva headquarters could theoretically be moved at any time. Article 7 also made it very clear that all secretariat services were open to women as well. It is an important element of the League of Nations. The delegates and the secretariat had diplomatic status.


Le premier secrétaire s’appelait Sir Eric Drummond établi directement à la conférence de Paris. La tenue du secrétariat était assumée par tous les États membres et la répartition financière des coûts était faite à travers la clef des répartitions des coûts déjà établie dans l’organisation de l’Union postale universelle. L’Union postale universelle est aujourd’hui une institution spécialisée de l’ONU, mais elle ne faisait pas partie de la Société des Nations aussi à cause des réticences suisses. Le siège de Genève pouvait théoriquement être déplacé à tout moment. L’article 7 établissait aussi de manière très claire que les tous les services du secrétariat étaient ouverts aux femmes également. C’est un élément important de la Société des Nations. Les délégués et le secrétariat possédaient le statut diplomatique.
Sir Eric Drummond was Secretary General from 1920 to 1932. He came from a noble family in Scotland and was a close relative of Ballefour in the Foreign Office during the Versailles conference. When he started at the League of Nations, Sir Eric Drummond was 44 years old. His career is very typical for an English diplomatic career, namely that he came from a noble family, son of the Viscount of Strathallan and his half-brother was the Earl of Perth. He studied at prestigious universities such as Eton College and worked at the Foreign Office. In 1933, he joined the British diplomatic service as Ambassador to Rome until 1939.


Sir Eric Drummond était secrétaire général de 1920 à 1932. Il était issu d’une famille noble d’Écosse et faisait partie des proches de Ballefour dans le cadre du Foreign office pendant la conférence de Versailles. Lorsqu’il démarre à la Société des Nations, Sir Eric Drummond avait 44 ans. Sa carrière est très typique pour une carrière diplomatique anglaise à savoir qu’il était issu d’une famille noble, fils du vicomte de Strathallan et son demi-frère était le comte de Perth. Il a étudié dans des universités prestigieuses comme l’Eton college et a travaillé au Foreign office. En 1933, il entre dans le service diplomatique britannique devenu ambassadeur à Rome jusqu’en 1939.
[[Fichier:Joseph Avenol 1932.jpg|thumb|left|200px|Joseph Avenol in 1932.]]


[[Fichier:Joseph Avenol 1932.jpg|thumb|left|200px|Joseph Avenol en 1932.]]
Joseph Avenol was General Secretary from 1933 to 1940. He had worked for the French Minister of Foreign Affairs, a senior civil servant and had participated in numerous economic and financial conferences. In 1922, he was appointed Deputy Secretary General of the League of Nations and responsible for finance. At Versailles, there had been an informal agreement that the first Secretary General should be English and the second French. It should also be noted that Sir Eric Drummond had prevented the appointment of his successor. Avenol's appointment came at a time when Japan was leaving the League of Nations followed by Nazi Germany in 1933. Under his watch, there are great failures. Avenol will play the appeasement card directed towards the powers of the axis. It is in line with the foreign policy of France and the United Kingdom. During the invasion of Ethiopia, he sought to avoid Italy leaving the League of Nations. The defence of Ethiopia to keep the League of Nations safe never leaves Avenol's politics. When he left his post in 1940 following Germany's invasion of France, he remained close to the Vichy regime. As an employee, he refuses to return to France. From 1940 onwards, Avenol carried out a reorganisation of the workforce, which saw massive layoffs.
 
Joseph Avenol est secrétaire général de 1933 à 1940. Il avait travaillé pour le ministre des affaires étrangères français, haut-fonctionnaire et avait participé à de nombreuses conférences économiques et financières. En 1922, il est nommé secrétaire général suppléant de la Société des Nations et responsable de la question des finances. À Versailles, il y avait eu un accord officieux qui avait décidé que le premier secrétaire général devait être anglais et le second français. Il faut aussi savoir que Sir Eric Drummond avait empêché la nomination de son successeur. La nomination de Avenol se fait dans un contexte où le Japon quitte la Société des Nations suivie de l’Allemagne nazie en 1933. Sous sa fonction, il y a de grands échecs. Avenol va jouer la carte de l’apaisement dirigé vers les puissances de l’axe. Il s’aligne sur la politique extérieure de la France et du Royaume-Uni. Pendant l’invasion de l’Éthiopie, il cherche à éviter le fait que l’Italie quitte la Société des Nations. La défense de l’Éthiopie pour garder la sureté de la Société des Nations ne quitte jamais la politique de Avenol. Lorsqu’il quitte son poste en 1940 suite à l’invasion de la France par l’Allemagne, il reste proche du régime de Vichy. En tant que collaborateur, il refuse de rentrer en France. À partir de 1940, Avenol mène une réorganisation des effectifs qui voit des licenciements massifs.


[[Fichier:SeanLester.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Sean Lester.]]
[[Fichier:SeanLester.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Sean Lester.]]


En août 1940, l’irlandais Seán Lester remplace Avenol et la Société des Nations ne compte plus que cent employés alors qu’à l’origine la Société des Nations avait un personnel à la hauteur de 700 employé. La Société des Nations entre dans une période d’hibernation. Seán Lester est le troisième et dernier secrétaire général de la Société des Nations issu du jeune État irlandais. Journaliste, il entre au service du gouvernement du jeune État libre d’Irlande au sein du département des Affaires étrangères en 1923. Il devient délégué permanent de son pays à la Société des Nations en 1929. Il est nommé haut-commissaire pour la Ville libre de Dantzig en 1934 et occupe ce poste jusqu’en 1936. Bien que la Société des Nations existe toujours, l’éclatement de la Seconde Guerre mondiale a rendu de facto la Société assez inactive. Lester n’a pu faire que très peu et supervise la dissolution de la Société des Nations dans la transition vers la nouvelle Organisation des Nations Unies.
In August 1940, the Irish Seán Lester replaced Avenol and the League of Nations had only 100 employees, whereas the League of Nations originally had 700 employees. The League of Nations is entering a period of hibernation. Seán Lester is the third and final Secretary General of the League of Nations from the young Irish state. A journalist, he joined the government of the young Free State of Ireland in the Department of Foreign Affairs in 1923. He became his country's permanent delegate to the League of Nations in 1929. He was appointed High Commissioner for the Free City of Danzig in 1934 and held this position until 1936. Although the League of Nations still exists, the outbreak of the Second World War made the League de facto quite inactive. Lester was able to do very little and oversees the dissolution of the League of Nations in the transition to the new United Nations.


= L’organigramme de la Société des Nations =
= The organization chart of the League of Nations =
[[Image:organigramme de la Société des Nations.jpg|thumb]]
[[Image:organigramme de la Société des Nations.jpg|thumb]]


Il faut faire la distinction entre organe subsidiaire technique et politique, il y a aussi des organismes reliés à la Société des Nations qui sont des organismes qui ne sont pas intégrés directement dans l’organigramme de la Société des Nations. Dans les organes subsidiaires techniques, on sépare organes techniques et commissions techniques.
A distinction must be made between a technical and a political subsidiary body, there are also bodies related to the League of Nations which are bodies that are not directly integrated into the League of Nations' organization chart. In the technical subsidiary bodies, there are separate technical bodies and functional commissions.


== Les travaux humanitaires de la Société des Nations ==
== The humanitarian work of the League of Nations ==
La période entre les deux guerres est l’ère des réfugiés. Il y a plus de 5 millions de réfugiés entre 1919 et 1939. Avant même le déclenchement de la Deuxième Guerre mondiale, la question des réfugiés est importante. Les phases principales de ces mouvements liés à la question des réfugiés est la phase du rapatriement des réfugiés de guerre, à partir des années 1920, le secours aux réfugiés russes, grecs, arméniens, turcs et bulgares et ensuite le secours aux réfugiés allemands y compris juifs entre 1933 et 1939 puis les Espagnols entre 1936 et 1939.
The period between the two wars was the era of refugees. There were more than 5 million refugees between 1919 and 1939. Even before the outbreak of the Second World War, the refugee issue was important. The main phases of these movements linked to the refugee issue are the repatriation of war refugees from the 1920s onwards, assistance to Russian, Greek, Armenian, Turkish and Bulgarian refugees and then assistance to German refugees, including Jews, between 1933 and 1939 and the Spanish between 1936 and 1939.


== Bureau Nansen pour le rapatriement des prisonniers de guerre ==
== Nansen Office for the Repatriation of Prisoners of War ==
[[Fichier:Bureau Nansen pour le rapatriement des prisonniers de guerre.png|vignette]]
[[Fichier:Bureau Nansen pour le rapatriement des prisonniers de guerre.png|vignette]]


Le bureau Nansen est extrêmement important afin de gérer la crise des réfugiés. Il y a un million de réfugiés russes. Avec la paix de Lausanne, il y 1,5 million de Grecs, 300 000 Turcs et 400 000 Arméniens déplacés pour définir des espaces nationaux homogènes. Le bureau Nansen pour les réfugiés est le prédécesseur du Haut commissariat pour les réfugiés. La logique de l’État national qui se veut avec des régions qui sont ethniquement homogènes, des guerres et des conflits entre minorités et gouvernements et il y a l’établissement des dictatures en Europe avec la prise du pouvoir par les fascistes en Italie et en 1933 la prise du pouvoir par les nationaux-socialistes créant de problème à ceux qui ne sont pas dans la logique de système dictatorial.
The Nansen office is extremely important in managing the refugee crisis. There are a million Russian refugees. With the peace of Lausanne, there are 1.5 million Greeks, 300,000 Turks and 400,000 Armenians displaced to define homogeneous national spaces. The Nansen Office for Refugees is the predecessor of the High Commissioner for Refugees. The logic of the national state, which is intended to be with regions that are ethnically homogeneous, wars and conflicts between minorities and governments, and the establishment of dictatorships in Europe with the seizure of power by fascists in Italy and the seizure of power by National Socialists in 1933, creating problems for those who are not in the logic of a dictatorial system.
 
== Le Passeport Nansen et l’émergence d’un droit international des réfugiés ==
Nansen qui était un explorateur des régions polaires et qui a obtenu le prix Nobel de la Paix a également été à l’origine du passeport Nansen. L’établissement du passeport Nansen a lieu à la suite d’une conférence internationale de la Société des Nations en 1922 qui va créer un passeport provisoire reconnu internationalement. Il servait au rapatriement des prisonniers des guerres et aux personnes qui étaient dénouées de citoyenneté qui disposait ainsi d’au moins un document reconnaissant leur statut d’apatride. Marc Chagall avait un passeport Nansen, mais aussi Igor Stravinski ou encore la danseuse Anna Pavlova. En réalité, ce sont en particulier des réfugiés russes qui ont bénéficié du passeport Nansen en essayant d’échapper à la Révolution bolchévique. Plus tard, ce sont d’autres apatrides par la guerre gréco-turque et la guerre civile en Espace. Ce document était reconnu internationalement, mais n’était pas un vrai passeport. Cela était une manière de montrer sa propre identité et met en œuvre une tradition qui veut que les organisations internationales puissent établir des papiers pour les apatrides. En 1930, l’Office Nansen pour les réfugiés n’était pas apprécié par les États à l’exception de la France et des États nordiques qui le soutenait. En 1935, le passeport Nansen va couvrir les réfugiés allemands de la Sarre.
 
== La Sarre : un autre type de mandat de la Société des Nations ==
Le règlement était aux articles 45 et suivant de du traité de Versailles relatif aux compensations. Sur les cinq gestionnaires de La Sarre, une devait être allemand et l’autre Française. Les mines de la Sarre devaient pouvoir être économiquement exploitées par la France. En 1923, la Sarre a aussi connu des grèves très fortes visant à s’opposer à la scission d’avec l’Allemagne. Rault a fait venir les troupes françaises dans le territoire de la Sarre et a fait valoir son droit à la guerre. La Grande-Bretagne a réagi en menaçant de mettre en examen la question de la Sarre. Suite à la grève générale dans la Sarre, le Conseil de la Société des Nations en est venu à la conclusion qu’il fallait revoir cette question. En 1935, un plébiscite est organisé par la Société des Nations. Les experts mobilisés étaient issus de différents États neutres. La Société des Nations a sécurisé le vote par un ensemble de troupes internationales. Avec l’exemple de la Sarre, la Société des Nations constitue une troupe de plus de 3000 soldats. Le résultat au plébiscite de la Sarre était sans équivoque, la grande majorité était en faveur du rattachement à l’Allemagne dans un rapport de 1 à 10. Le premier mars 1935, la Société des Nations a réuni la région de La Sarre à l’Allemagne après quoi 8000 ont émigrés en usant du passeport Nansen.


L’exemple de la Sarre montre l’idée wilsonien de ne pas chercher à résoudre tous les problèmes pendant la conférence de paix, mais d’établir un système permettant de résoudre de manière pacifique les contentieux territoriaux.
== The Nansen Passport and the emergence of international refugee law ==
Nansen, who was a polar explorer and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, was also behind the Nansen passport. The Nansen passport was issued following an international conference of the League of Nations in 1922 that created an internationally recognized temporary passport. It was used for the repatriation of prisoners of war and persons who were deprived of citizenship, who thus had at least one document recognizing their stateless status. Marc Chagall had a Nansen passport, but also Igor Stravinsky or the dancer Anna Pavlova. In reality, Russian refugees in particular benefited from the Nansen passport while trying to escape the Bolshevik Revolution. Later, they were other stateless people by the Greek-Turkish war and the Civil War in Space. This document was internationally recognized, but was not a real passport. This was a way of showing one's own identity and implements a tradition of international organizations being able to issue documents for stateless persons. In 1930, the Nansen Office for Refugees was not appreciated by the States except France and the Nordic States that supported it. In 1935, the Nansen passport covered German refugees from the Saarland.


== Dantzig (Danzig, Gdansk) : « Cité-libre » sous mandat de la Société des Nations ==
== Saarland: another type of mandate of the League of Nations ==
Une autre question territoriale explosive est le Haut commissariat à Dantzig qui est une Cité-libre sous mandat de la Société des Nations. En novembre 1920, la ville de Dantzig a été déclarée « ville libre » sans recourir à des votations populaires. Le nouvel État-nation polonais se battait pour obtenir une position de grande puissance en Europe. En 1926 règne une dictature avec Piłsudski à sa tête et obtint le statut de membre permanent à la Société des Nations.
The regulation was in Articles 45 et seq. of the Treaty of Versailles on compensation. Of the five managers in La Sarre, one had to be German and the other French. The Saarland mines were to be economically exploitable by France. In 1923, Saarland also experienced very strong strikes to oppose the split from Germany. Rault brought French troops into the territory of the Saarland and asserted his right to war. Britain reacted by threatening to raise the Saarland issue. Following the general strike in the Saarland, the Council of the League of Nations concluded that this issue needed to be reviewed. In 1935, a plebiscite was organized by the League of Nations. The experts mobilized came from different neutral states. The League of Nations secured the vote by a group of international troops. With the example of Saarland, the League of Nations has a troop of more than 3000 soldiers. The result of Saarland's plebiscite was unequivocal, the vast majority was in favour of joining Germany in a ratio of 1 to 10. On March 1, 1935, the League of Nations reunited the Saarland region with Germany, after which 8,000 emigrated using the Nansen passport.


La Pologne est un État marqué par la présence de grandes minorités nationales autant de langue allemande que de langues slaves. Pendant toute l’histoire de la Société des Nations, des minorités nationales de Pologne se sont tournées vers le Conseil de la Société des Nations afin de leur adresser leurs plaintes qui étaient désagréables et irritantes pour la Pologne. En janvier 1934, la Pologne a conclu un accord avec l’Allemagne prévoyant des solutions bilatérales concernant les conflits avec les minorités. En septembre 1934, la Pologne suspendait sa coopération avec la Société des Nations concernant les minorités montrant la faiblesse de la Société de Nations. Les faiseurs de paix à Paris avaient prévu qu’il fallait signer des traités pour la protection des minorités. En mai 1933, les élections à Dantzig ont résulté en une majorité pour les national-socialistes. Ce qui se passe en Allemagne se reflète à Dantzig, d’autant plus que ce qui se passe à Dantzig rend attractifs le national-socialisme et l’idée de retrouver un grand empire allemand. Avoir un mandat sur la ville était une protection contre un régime qui se fait de plus en plus comme un régime de terreur et qui agit comme un régime d’agressivité.
The example of Saarland shows the Wilsonian idea of not seeking to solve all problems during the peace conference, but to establish a system for the peaceful resolution of territorial disputes.


Lester allait devenir victime de la propagande nazie. Carl Jacob Burckhardt calme l’atmosphère, mais va aussi faire plusieurs compromis avec le national-socialisme afin de garder la paix à Dantzig. En 1937, les national-socialistes ont défait à Dantzig ce qui restait à l’opposition et ont imposé leur domination. Au début de la Deuxième Guerre mondiale, cette ville sous contrôle théorique de la Société des Nations est de facto sous contrôle national-socialiste.
== Danzig (Gdansk): "Free City" under mandate from the League of Nations ==
Another explosive territorial issue is the High Commission in Danzig, which is a Free City under the mandate of the League of Nations. In November 1920, the city of Danzig was declared a "free city" without resorting to popular votes. The new Polish nation-state was fighting for a position of great power in Europe. In 1926 a dictatorship reigned with Piłsudski at its head and obtained the status of permanent member of the League of Nations.


== L’organisation de l’hygiène ==
Poland is a state with large national minorities in both German and Slavic languages. Throughout the history of the League of Nations, national minorities in Poland have turned to the League of Nations Council to address their complaints, which were unpleasant and irritating to Poland. In January 1934, Poland concluded an agreement with Germany providing for bilateral solutions to conflicts with minorities. In September 1934, Poland suspended its cooperation with the League of Nations on minorities showing the weakness of the League of Nations. The peacemakers in Paris had foreseen that treaties for the protection of minorities should be signed. In May 1933, the elections in Danzig resulted in a majority for the National Socialists. What is happening in Germany is reflected in Danzig, especially since what is happening in Danzig makes National Socialism and the idea of regaining a great German empire attractive. Having a mandate over the city was a protection against a regime that is increasingly becoming a regime of terror and acting as a regime of aggression.
La coopération internationale dans le domaine de la santé avait une longue tradition qui remonte en 1907. En 1907, à Rome est fondé l’Office international d’hygiène publique avec pour siège Paris et organisé avec un Conseil et une Assemblée avec des pays membres. Les États comprennent que pour gérer des questions de santé, les frontières des États nationaux sont des problèmes et il faut chercher à régler ces questions au niveau international. Lorsque la Société des Nations est devenue active dans le domaine de la santé, beaucoup ont pensé que l’Office d’hygiène publique serait intégré dans la Société des Nations. Les États-Unis qui étaient actifs de l’office international de l’hygiène publique étaient contre l’intégration de cette organisation au sein de la famille des organisations de la Société des Nations. Dans cette période il y a deux organisations qui ont coexisté pendant les deux guerres : l’Organisation internationale d’hygiène publique et l’Organisation d’hygiène de la Société des Nations. Ces deux organisations ont quand même cherché à collaborer après une période d’opposition initiale de la part des États-Unis.


[[Fichier:activité géographique de la section d’hygiène de la Société des Nations.png|vignette]]
Lester was to become a victim of Nazi propaganda. Carl Jacob Burckhardt calmed the atmosphere, but also made several compromises with National Socialism in order to keep peace in Danzig. In 1937, the National Socialists defeated what remained of the opposition in Danzig and imposed their domination. At the beginning of the Second World War, this city under the theoretical control of the League of Nations was de facto under National Socialist control.


Sur cette carte on voit la répartition de l’activité géographique de la section d’hygiène de la Société des Nations. Par son activité et sa composition, cette organisation d’hygiène de la Société des Nations était d’envergure mondiale cherchant à couvrir tout le monde.
== The organization of hygiene ==
International cooperation in the field of health had a long tradition dating back to 1907. In 1907, the International Office of Public Health was founded in Rome with its headquarters in Paris and organized with a Council and an Assembly with member countries. States understand that to manage health issues, the borders of national states are problems and that these issues must be addressed at the international level. When the League of Nations became active in the health field, many thought that the Public Health Office would be integrated into the League of Nations. The United States, which was active in the International Office of Public Health, was against the integration of this organization into the family of League of Nations organizations. During this period there were two organizations that coexisted during the two wars: the International Public Health Organization and the League of Nations Hygiene Organization. These two organizations nevertheless sought to cooperate after an initial period of opposition from the United States.


En 1946, les deux organisations séparées ont fusionné dans l’Organisation mondiale de la Santé. L’histoire de ces deux organisations est très importante afin de montrer des différences substantielles entre le résultat des organisations internationales et ce qui va se mettre en place après la Deuxième Guerre mondiale. On pourrait même invoquer la thèse que la force relative de l’ONU est donnée du fait que les puissances qui gagnent la Deuxième Guerre mondiale arrivent à trouver des solutions pour les faiblesses qui avaient marqué les faiblesses de la Société des Nations.
[[Fichier:activité géographique de la section d’hygiène de la Société des Nations.png|vignette]]On this map we see the distribution of the geographical activity of the hygiene section of the League of Nations. By its activity and composition, this League of Nations hygiene organization was a world-class organization seeking to cover everyone.


== Régime de protection des minorités en Europe de l’Est ==
In 1946, the two separate organizations merged into the World Health Organization. The history of these two organizations is very important in order to show substantial differences between the results of international organizations and what will be put in place after the Second World War. One could even argue that the relative strength of the UN is given by the fact that the powers that won the Second World War manage to find solutions for the weaknesses that had marked the weaknesses of the League of Nations.


Lorsque les faiseurs de paix à Paris établissent les nouveaux États, ils créent le système de protection des minorités. Cela renvoie aux articles 10 et 19 du pacte de la Société des Nations. Le but était de garantir des droits fondamentaux aux minorités nationales notamment avec une codification du droit à la vie, à la liberté, à la liberté religieuse, à l’égalité devant le droit, à la liberté politique et matérielle, à la liberté d’utiliser sa langue maternelle, mais aussi le droit des groupes et des particuliers. Dans l’entre deux guerres, on n’est pas encore dans une période où il y a des droits individuels. Il n’y a pas encore les droits de l’homme, mais des droits collectifs.
== Regime for the protection of minorities in Eastern Europe ==
When the peacemakers in Paris establish the new states, they create the system of minority protection. This refers to Articles 10 and 19 of the League of Nations Covenant. The aim was to guarantee fundamental rights to national minorities, in particular by codifying the right to life, freedom, religious freedom, equality before the law, political and material freedom, the freedom to use one's mother tongue, but also the rights of groups and individuals. In the period between two wars, we are not yet in a period where there are individual rights. There are not yet human rights, but collective rights.


Les droits donnés collectivement sont des droits qui en vrai font sens au titre individuel. La préparation de ce qui va se mettre en place après la Deuxième guerre mondiale avec la conception des droits de l’Homme se prépare déjà aux droits donnés aux minorités. Cette conception de la protection des minorités était la tentative des faiseurs de paix à paris de trouver des solutions avec une grande stratification éthique. Le rôle de la Société des Nations et la manière dont cela devait fonctionner étaient des plaintes individuelles ou des groupes de minorités qui peuvent s’adresser à la section des minorités du secrétariat des minorités de la Société des Nations. C’est l’établissement d’un système où les ressortissants d’un État peuvent faire pression sur leur propre État.
Collectively given rights are rights that make sense to the individual. The preparation of what will be put in place after the Second World War with the conception of human rights is already being prepared for the rights given to minorities. This conception of minority protection was the attempt of peacemakers in Paris to find solutions with a high ethical stratification. The role of the League of Nations and how it should work were individual complaints or minority groups that can be addressed to the minority section of the League of Nations' minority secretariat. It is the establishment of a system where nationals of a State can put pressure on their own State.


Il y a une transformation de la diplomatie secrète vers une diplomatie publique. Avec l’agenda setting, beaucoup de minorités vont mettre leurs questions sur l’agenda international et le secrétariat de la Société des Nations va mettre à l’ordre du jour ces décisions. L’État concerné devait répondre à cette accusation. Pendant la période de l’entre-deux-guerres, plus de 200 plaintes sont enregistrées. 81 plaintes contre la Roumanie concernant des minorités hongroises, bulgares et russes, 47 contre la Yougoslavie, 44 contre la Grève, 13 contre la Turquie et 2 contre la Bulgarie. Les minorités pouvaient au moins chercher à mettre à l’agenda international leurs questions. L’importance de la langue maternelle n’était pas une grande question pendant la période des grands empires multiethniques. La question de la langue est explosive. Il y a toute sorte de discrimination d’ordre politique notamment au fait que les minorités ne peuvent pas accéder à des fonctions d’ordre politique, mais aussi l’expropriation des minorités nationales diffère.
There is a transformation from secret diplomacy to public diplomacy. With the agenda setting, many minorities will put their questions on the international agenda and the Secretariat of the League of Nations will put these decisions on the agenda. The State concerned had to respond to this accusation. During the inter-war period, more than 200 complaints were registered. 81 complaints against Romania concerning Hungarian, Bulgarian and Russian minorities, 47 against Yugoslavia, 44 against the Strike, 13 against Turkey and 2 against Bulgaria. Minorities could at least seek to put their issues on the international agenda. The importance of the mother tongue was not a major issue during the period of the great multi-ethnic empires. The question of language is an explosive one. There is all kinds of political discrimination, including the fact that minorities cannot access political functions, but also the expropriation of national minorities differs.


== Suppression de la traite des femmes et des enfants ==
== Suppression of trafficking in women and children ==
Il y a eu pendant toute la période des exemples positifs où la Société des Nations a pu établir des conditions qui ont amélioré la condition des minorités, mais il faut bien voir qu’en général, le résultat des pétitions n’a pas vraiment changé d’une manière fondamentale restant encore aujourd’hui un problème explosif de toutes les relations internationales. Les résultats des pétitions à été quantitativement et qualitativement décevants étant donné que la grande masse de pétitions a été déclarée « non recevable ». Néanmoins, c’est une première expérimentation de contrôle international des droits fondamentaux des groupes. La Convention internationale relative à la répression de la traite des blanches va être intégrée dans la famille des grandes activités de la Société des Nations. La Société des Nations a pris en charge cette affaire et a présenté en 1921 une Convention pour la suppression de la traite des femmes et des enfants. Une convention consultative a été mise en place préparant le terrain pour cette convention. Les bases de cette convention se trouvent dans les articles 6 et 7 de cette convention. Avec la convention contre la traite illégale de l’opium, on détient tous les éléments antécédents à l’établissement de la Société des Nations et qui vont confluer dans ce système.
There have been positive examples throughout the period where the League of Nations has been able to establish conditions that have improved the status of minorities, but it must be seen that, in general, the outcome of petitions has not really changed in a fundamental way and remains an explosive problem in all international relations to this day. The results of the petitions were quantitatively and qualitatively disappointing given that the large mass of petitions was declared "inadmissible". Nevertheless, this is a first experiment in international monitoring of the fundamental rights of groups. The International Convention for the Suppression of the White Slave Trade will be integrated into the family of major activities of the League of Nations. The League of Nations took up this case and in 1921 presented a Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Women and Children. A consultative agreement has been put in place preparing the ground for this convention. The basis for this convention can be found in Articles 6 and 7 of this convention. With the Convention against the Illegal Trafficking in Opium, we have all the elements prior to the establishment of the League of Nations that will flow into this system.


== Commission de la coopération intellectuelle ==
== Committee on Intellectual Cooperation ==


Les thèmes discutés sont par exemple, l’éducation pour la paix, la comparaison des livres d’histoire pour rapprocher des interprétations nationales ou encore la coopération des bibliothèques, la traduction et des transferts des savoirs.
The topics discussed are, for example, education for peace, the comparison of history books to bring national interpretations closer together, library cooperation, translation and knowledge transfer.


= Conclusion =
= Conclusion =
La Société des Nations devient un centre d’échange d’informations sur l’état du monde. Il y a de nombreuses publications sur toute question. La Société des Nations devient un centre de documentation au niveau mondial pour échanger des informations. Elle exprime une conscientisation internationale et une responsabilisée grandissantes pour l’avenir du monde établissant des approches nouvelles pour améliorer la gouvernance globale mondiale et pour stabiliser la paix. La Société des Nations devient importante, met des lignes directrices et peut se heurter aux États, mais ne peut rien faire si les États membres ne veulent pas faire.
The League of Nations becomes a clearing house for information on the state of the world. There are many publications on any issue. The League of Nations becomes a global documentation centre for information exchange. It expresses a growing international awareness and responsibility for the future of the world, establishing new approaches to improve global governance and stabilize peace. The League of Nations becomes important, provides guidelines and may clash with States, but cannot do anything if Member States do not want to do it.


= Annexes =
= Annexes =
*The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. “[http://www.britannica.com/topic/League-of-Nations League of Nations].” Encyclopædia Britannica.
*UNOG Library, Registry, Records and Archives Unit. [https://www.unog.ch/80256EDD006B8954/(httpAssets)/36BC4F83BD9E4443C1257AF3004FC0AE/%24file/Historical_overview_of_the_League_of_Nations.pdf History of the League of Nations (1919-1946)]
*“The League of Nations.” International Organization, vol. 1, no. 1, 1947, pp. 141–142. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/2703534.


= Références =
= References =
<references />
<references />


Version actuelle datée du 11 mars 2020 à 10:26

The League of Nations as an organization for technical, economic, social and humanitarian cooperation
Professeur(s) Sacha Zala[1][2][3][4][5]
Cours Multilateral diplomacy and international organizations

Lectures


We will see the League of Nations as an organization for technical, economic, social and humanitarian cooperation. We had seen Versailles as an interpretative key for the 20th century. The territorial issues dealt with in Versailles remain explosive, as do those of minorities. Versailles was a key moment for decolonization and nationalism, which marked an evolution of the colonial order with the creation of the mandate system. The 1922 Geneva Economic and Financial Conference followed the Versailles Conference, which marked the beginning of attempts to organize the international system, which also enabled the Bretton Woods system to be set up in 1945. The thesis is that the League of Nations did not fail, but it was torpedoed. The peace of Paris marks a new international order. Article 231 of the Treaty of Versailles will trigger a real national hysteria in Germany because the whole German people feel guilty. The German government is beginning to support the opening of the archives, which will lead to a democratization of access to sources. Historians in 1914 touched on subjects that probably went as far as Napoleon, a history that was at least almost a hundred years old. Also, with Versailles comes contemporary history as a scientific and academic discipline. It was only after the Second World War that contemporary flesh was established.

Zara Steiner published a monumental work on international relations between the two wars under the title "The Lights That Failed. European International History, 1919-1933". Even if Steiner conceptualizes international relations in a classical way, the "Geneva dream" remains only a dream and rejects the failed of the Versailles system, a history of international relations that opens its perspective on cross-border and transformational dimensions will show that this inter-war dream has materialized much more than previously thought: the international order is much more marked by the history of the League of Nations.

In "Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World" published in 2007, Margaret MacMillan reports that on June 28, 1919, when President Wilson left Paris, he turned to his wife and said: "Well, little girl, it is finished, and, as no one is satisfied, it makes me hope we have made a just peace". We will look at the League of Nations and show how it organizes itself for technical, economic, social and humanitarian cooperation.

Languages


Español Français



Main organs of the League of Nations[modifier | modifier le wikicode]

There are the Council, the Assembly, the Secretariat, political and technical subsidiary bodies as well as bodies related to the League of Nations. The purpose of the League of Nations is to try to prevent war. The aim is to encourage cooperation between nations, to guarantee international security with a view to preserving world peace. This was intended to address not only international conflicts and the dangers associated with them, but also latent unrest. The League of Nations was a broadening towards a universal organization and was less oriented towards Europe than the European Concert had been. The organization of the League of Nations obliged the opening towards any civilized nation. To be admitted to the League of Nations, it was not necessary to be completely sovereign like the dominions. Being European was not a prerequisite. The absence of the United States will be decisive for the history of the League of Nations making it an organization that cannot be universal.

The organization is comparable to the UN structure with permanent and non-permanent members in the Council, an Assembly and a Court of Justice. There was no veto power for the League of Nations or in other words everyone had a veto power since the concept was an equal state with one vote. The League of Nations system was much more than just a central organization. There were rich international movements formed before the war that were integrated into the League of Nations as a technical organization. It is a new element of the 20th century. The Council was to establish the International Court of Justice under Article 14 of the Charter, which was established in The Hague in 1920.

Switzerland is committed to ensuring that it is not integrated into the League of Nations network. This is because the initial exclusion of central empires was seen as proof that the League of Nations was not neutral. This lack of neutrality was seen as a problem whereby Switzerland tries to keep the old networks outside the League of Nations, it also allows Switzerland to keep control over the old system of international relations which allowed it to keep control over the administrative system. After the Locarno Pact of 1925, there was a relaxation, but this did not change the view of the integration of the old networks. There are all kinds of other international organizations that were not part of the League of Nations and will be based in Geneva. There is therefore the League of Nations system, but also a parallel system of international organizations and offices which is a governmental system, but not integrated into the League of Nations. This is one of the most substantial differences between the multilateral diplomacy system between the two wars and what will be put in place after the Second World War with the establishment of the United Nations, which will successfully integrate the old international networks of the 19th century.

The League of Nations opened a new chapter in the history of international organizations as it had an autonomous system meaning that the secretariat in Geneva had a status equal to that of an embassy. According to Madeleine Herren, the two new elements were the expansion of the international political system and the beginning of the integration of states that were not yet sovereign. There is a very strong expansion of international politics. On the other hand, there is the change in the function of diplomacy. Compared to the former secret diplomacy of the European Council type, the instrument of negotiation has become a means of convincing and carrying out multilateral public propaganda. There is the establishment of a real international discourse.

The Council[modifier | modifier le wikicode]

A meeting of the Council of the League of Nations.

In principle, the Council had the same powers as the Assembly with permanent and non-permanent members. Was planned as a permanent member of the prestigious states, Great Britain, France, Italy and Japan. The non-permanent members were to be elected by the Assembly together with Brazil, Belgium, Greece and Spain. Voting shall take place regularly until the dissolution of the League of Nations. After the withdrawal of the United States, the permanent members were reduced to four. In 1936, Germany left the League of Nations, in 1937 it was Italy and in 1939, the USSR was expelled. From 1939 before the great crisis of the Second World War, only Great Britain and France had permanent membership status showing why the Society is extremely weak and can do nothing to avoid the Second World War. Several thinkers and politicians stressed the importance of regular meetings. This assumption of regular meetings was made with the Council of the League of Nations, which was an important development in relation to the former European Concert system.

The Assembly[modifier | modifier le wikicode]

The Assembly was competent for all areas related to the issue of world and technical peace. All countries had one seat and one vote, in reality, there were always three representatives per country who had one vote. The Assembly questioned the principle of sovereignty. This was an important step towards the reform of the British Empire and on the issue of decolonization. Originally, the League of Nations consisted of 42 members, 32 victorious states and 10 neutral states. 22 additional states were admitted, including Germany in 1926 and the USSR in 1934. The withdrawal from the League of Nations could be made at any time, but effective after two years. Between 1922 and 1934, there were 20 States that withdrew from the League of Nations. When Hitler came to power, he left the League of Nations, fascist Italy following the Ethiopian crisis and Japan, which also had an authoritarian regime. There was also the exclusion of the Soviet Union.

Despite the fact that the League of Nations opened the public prosecutor's office for international relations to all kinds of countries that were not European, despite its very vast scope, the League of Nations has never succeeded in achieving the universality that has made it weak. On the one hand, the League of Nations goes beyond the limits of Europe and is not really able to be universal. Unlike the UN Council, the permanent members did not have veto power, and unanimity was required, as was unanimity in the Assembly. It is this procedure that has been criticized most often. This unanimity rule corresponded to the rules of public international law. Moreover, given the composition of the League of Nations, this was democratic, giving weight to small States and those that had not yet achieved independence. As a result, States remained sovereign. The only time States had to renounce their sovereignty was the renunciation of the law of war. War is from the moral point of view a legitimate continuation of politics, but it must comply with the rules of the pact. It was only in the context of mediation that Article 15, which provided for unanimity, was not necessary. In the case of conflicts, a majority vote was sufficient to recommend a peaceful settlement.

Secretariat[modifier | modifier le wikicode]

The Secretary-General was active in various sectors. Until the war, secretaries-general were typically from Great Britain or France. The officials in Geneva were from all Member States and owed their allegiance to the League of Nations and not to their State of origin. The logic of national belonging nevertheless remained important. Officials could not accept anything from his own state and were not allowed to propagate for his own state. The secretariat operated according to the rules of the European administration and more precisely according to the rules of the English administration.

Eric Drummond in 1932.

The first secretary was Sir Eric Drummond, who was established directly at the Paris conference. The maintenance of the secretariat was assumed by all member States and the financial distribution of costs was made through the cost allocation key already established in the organization of the Universal Postal Union. The Universal Postal Union is now a specialized agency of the United Nations, but it was not part of the League of Nations either because of Swiss reluctance. The Geneva headquarters could theoretically be moved at any time. Article 7 also made it very clear that all secretariat services were open to women as well. It is an important element of the League of Nations. The delegates and the secretariat had diplomatic status.

Sir Eric Drummond was Secretary General from 1920 to 1932. He came from a noble family in Scotland and was a close relative of Ballefour in the Foreign Office during the Versailles conference. When he started at the League of Nations, Sir Eric Drummond was 44 years old. His career is very typical for an English diplomatic career, namely that he came from a noble family, son of the Viscount of Strathallan and his half-brother was the Earl of Perth. He studied at prestigious universities such as Eton College and worked at the Foreign Office. In 1933, he joined the British diplomatic service as Ambassador to Rome until 1939.

Joseph Avenol in 1932.

Joseph Avenol was General Secretary from 1933 to 1940. He had worked for the French Minister of Foreign Affairs, a senior civil servant and had participated in numerous economic and financial conferences. In 1922, he was appointed Deputy Secretary General of the League of Nations and responsible for finance. At Versailles, there had been an informal agreement that the first Secretary General should be English and the second French. It should also be noted that Sir Eric Drummond had prevented the appointment of his successor. Avenol's appointment came at a time when Japan was leaving the League of Nations followed by Nazi Germany in 1933. Under his watch, there are great failures. Avenol will play the appeasement card directed towards the powers of the axis. It is in line with the foreign policy of France and the United Kingdom. During the invasion of Ethiopia, he sought to avoid Italy leaving the League of Nations. The defence of Ethiopia to keep the League of Nations safe never leaves Avenol's politics. When he left his post in 1940 following Germany's invasion of France, he remained close to the Vichy regime. As an employee, he refuses to return to France. From 1940 onwards, Avenol carried out a reorganisation of the workforce, which saw massive layoffs.

Sean Lester.

In August 1940, the Irish Seán Lester replaced Avenol and the League of Nations had only 100 employees, whereas the League of Nations originally had 700 employees. The League of Nations is entering a period of hibernation. Seán Lester is the third and final Secretary General of the League of Nations from the young Irish state. A journalist, he joined the government of the young Free State of Ireland in the Department of Foreign Affairs in 1923. He became his country's permanent delegate to the League of Nations in 1929. He was appointed High Commissioner for the Free City of Danzig in 1934 and held this position until 1936. Although the League of Nations still exists, the outbreak of the Second World War made the League de facto quite inactive. Lester was able to do very little and oversees the dissolution of the League of Nations in the transition to the new United Nations.

The organization chart of the League of Nations[modifier | modifier le wikicode]

Organigramme de la Société des Nations.jpg

A distinction must be made between a technical and a political subsidiary body, there are also bodies related to the League of Nations which are bodies that are not directly integrated into the League of Nations' organization chart. In the technical subsidiary bodies, there are separate technical bodies and functional commissions.

The humanitarian work of the League of Nations[modifier | modifier le wikicode]

The period between the two wars was the era of refugees. There were more than 5 million refugees between 1919 and 1939. Even before the outbreak of the Second World War, the refugee issue was important. The main phases of these movements linked to the refugee issue are the repatriation of war refugees from the 1920s onwards, assistance to Russian, Greek, Armenian, Turkish and Bulgarian refugees and then assistance to German refugees, including Jews, between 1933 and 1939 and the Spanish between 1936 and 1939.

Nansen Office for the Repatriation of Prisoners of War[modifier | modifier le wikicode]

Bureau Nansen pour le rapatriement des prisonniers de guerre.png

The Nansen office is extremely important in managing the refugee crisis. There are a million Russian refugees. With the peace of Lausanne, there are 1.5 million Greeks, 300,000 Turks and 400,000 Armenians displaced to define homogeneous national spaces. The Nansen Office for Refugees is the predecessor of the High Commissioner for Refugees. The logic of the national state, which is intended to be with regions that are ethnically homogeneous, wars and conflicts between minorities and governments, and the establishment of dictatorships in Europe with the seizure of power by fascists in Italy and the seizure of power by National Socialists in 1933, creating problems for those who are not in the logic of a dictatorial system.

The Nansen Passport and the emergence of international refugee law[modifier | modifier le wikicode]

Nansen, who was a polar explorer and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, was also behind the Nansen passport. The Nansen passport was issued following an international conference of the League of Nations in 1922 that created an internationally recognized temporary passport. It was used for the repatriation of prisoners of war and persons who were deprived of citizenship, who thus had at least one document recognizing their stateless status. Marc Chagall had a Nansen passport, but also Igor Stravinsky or the dancer Anna Pavlova. In reality, Russian refugees in particular benefited from the Nansen passport while trying to escape the Bolshevik Revolution. Later, they were other stateless people by the Greek-Turkish war and the Civil War in Space. This document was internationally recognized, but was not a real passport. This was a way of showing one's own identity and implements a tradition of international organizations being able to issue documents for stateless persons. In 1930, the Nansen Office for Refugees was not appreciated by the States except France and the Nordic States that supported it. In 1935, the Nansen passport covered German refugees from the Saarland.

Saarland: another type of mandate of the League of Nations[modifier | modifier le wikicode]

The regulation was in Articles 45 et seq. of the Treaty of Versailles on compensation. Of the five managers in La Sarre, one had to be German and the other French. The Saarland mines were to be economically exploitable by France. In 1923, Saarland also experienced very strong strikes to oppose the split from Germany. Rault brought French troops into the territory of the Saarland and asserted his right to war. Britain reacted by threatening to raise the Saarland issue. Following the general strike in the Saarland, the Council of the League of Nations concluded that this issue needed to be reviewed. In 1935, a plebiscite was organized by the League of Nations. The experts mobilized came from different neutral states. The League of Nations secured the vote by a group of international troops. With the example of Saarland, the League of Nations has a troop of more than 3000 soldiers. The result of Saarland's plebiscite was unequivocal, the vast majority was in favour of joining Germany in a ratio of 1 to 10. On March 1, 1935, the League of Nations reunited the Saarland region with Germany, after which 8,000 emigrated using the Nansen passport.

The example of Saarland shows the Wilsonian idea of not seeking to solve all problems during the peace conference, but to establish a system for the peaceful resolution of territorial disputes.

Danzig (Gdansk): "Free City" under mandate from the League of Nations[modifier | modifier le wikicode]

Another explosive territorial issue is the High Commission in Danzig, which is a Free City under the mandate of the League of Nations. In November 1920, the city of Danzig was declared a "free city" without resorting to popular votes. The new Polish nation-state was fighting for a position of great power in Europe. In 1926 a dictatorship reigned with Piłsudski at its head and obtained the status of permanent member of the League of Nations.

Poland is a state with large national minorities in both German and Slavic languages. Throughout the history of the League of Nations, national minorities in Poland have turned to the League of Nations Council to address their complaints, which were unpleasant and irritating to Poland. In January 1934, Poland concluded an agreement with Germany providing for bilateral solutions to conflicts with minorities. In September 1934, Poland suspended its cooperation with the League of Nations on minorities showing the weakness of the League of Nations. The peacemakers in Paris had foreseen that treaties for the protection of minorities should be signed. In May 1933, the elections in Danzig resulted in a majority for the National Socialists. What is happening in Germany is reflected in Danzig, especially since what is happening in Danzig makes National Socialism and the idea of regaining a great German empire attractive. Having a mandate over the city was a protection against a regime that is increasingly becoming a regime of terror and acting as a regime of aggression.

Lester was to become a victim of Nazi propaganda. Carl Jacob Burckhardt calmed the atmosphere, but also made several compromises with National Socialism in order to keep peace in Danzig. In 1937, the National Socialists defeated what remained of the opposition in Danzig and imposed their domination. At the beginning of the Second World War, this city under the theoretical control of the League of Nations was de facto under National Socialist control.

The organization of hygiene[modifier | modifier le wikicode]

International cooperation in the field of health had a long tradition dating back to 1907. In 1907, the International Office of Public Health was founded in Rome with its headquarters in Paris and organized with a Council and an Assembly with member countries. States understand that to manage health issues, the borders of national states are problems and that these issues must be addressed at the international level. When the League of Nations became active in the health field, many thought that the Public Health Office would be integrated into the League of Nations. The United States, which was active in the International Office of Public Health, was against the integration of this organization into the family of League of Nations organizations. During this period there were two organizations that coexisted during the two wars: the International Public Health Organization and the League of Nations Hygiene Organization. These two organizations nevertheless sought to cooperate after an initial period of opposition from the United States.

Activité géographique de la section d’hygiène de la Société des Nations.png

On this map we see the distribution of the geographical activity of the hygiene section of the League of Nations. By its activity and composition, this League of Nations hygiene organization was a world-class organization seeking to cover everyone.

In 1946, the two separate organizations merged into the World Health Organization. The history of these two organizations is very important in order to show substantial differences between the results of international organizations and what will be put in place after the Second World War. One could even argue that the relative strength of the UN is given by the fact that the powers that won the Second World War manage to find solutions for the weaknesses that had marked the weaknesses of the League of Nations.

Regime for the protection of minorities in Eastern Europe[modifier | modifier le wikicode]

When the peacemakers in Paris establish the new states, they create the system of minority protection. This refers to Articles 10 and 19 of the League of Nations Covenant. The aim was to guarantee fundamental rights to national minorities, in particular by codifying the right to life, freedom, religious freedom, equality before the law, political and material freedom, the freedom to use one's mother tongue, but also the rights of groups and individuals. In the period between two wars, we are not yet in a period where there are individual rights. There are not yet human rights, but collective rights.

Collectively given rights are rights that make sense to the individual. The preparation of what will be put in place after the Second World War with the conception of human rights is already being prepared for the rights given to minorities. This conception of minority protection was the attempt of peacemakers in Paris to find solutions with a high ethical stratification. The role of the League of Nations and how it should work were individual complaints or minority groups that can be addressed to the minority section of the League of Nations' minority secretariat. It is the establishment of a system where nationals of a State can put pressure on their own State.

There is a transformation from secret diplomacy to public diplomacy. With the agenda setting, many minorities will put their questions on the international agenda and the Secretariat of the League of Nations will put these decisions on the agenda. The State concerned had to respond to this accusation. During the inter-war period, more than 200 complaints were registered. 81 complaints against Romania concerning Hungarian, Bulgarian and Russian minorities, 47 against Yugoslavia, 44 against the Strike, 13 against Turkey and 2 against Bulgaria. Minorities could at least seek to put their issues on the international agenda. The importance of the mother tongue was not a major issue during the period of the great multi-ethnic empires. The question of language is an explosive one. There is all kinds of political discrimination, including the fact that minorities cannot access political functions, but also the expropriation of national minorities differs.

Suppression of trafficking in women and children[modifier | modifier le wikicode]

There have been positive examples throughout the period where the League of Nations has been able to establish conditions that have improved the status of minorities, but it must be seen that, in general, the outcome of petitions has not really changed in a fundamental way and remains an explosive problem in all international relations to this day. The results of the petitions were quantitatively and qualitatively disappointing given that the large mass of petitions was declared "inadmissible". Nevertheless, this is a first experiment in international monitoring of the fundamental rights of groups. The International Convention for the Suppression of the White Slave Trade will be integrated into the family of major activities of the League of Nations. The League of Nations took up this case and in 1921 presented a Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Women and Children. A consultative agreement has been put in place preparing the ground for this convention. The basis for this convention can be found in Articles 6 and 7 of this convention. With the Convention against the Illegal Trafficking in Opium, we have all the elements prior to the establishment of the League of Nations that will flow into this system.

Committee on Intellectual Cooperation[modifier | modifier le wikicode]

The topics discussed are, for example, education for peace, the comparison of history books to bring national interpretations closer together, library cooperation, translation and knowledge transfer.

Conclusion[modifier | modifier le wikicode]

The League of Nations becomes a clearing house for information on the state of the world. There are many publications on any issue. The League of Nations becomes a global documentation centre for information exchange. It expresses a growing international awareness and responsibility for the future of the world, establishing new approaches to improve global governance and stabilize peace. The League of Nations becomes important, provides guidelines and may clash with States, but cannot do anything if Member States do not want to do it.

Annexes[modifier | modifier le wikicode]

References[modifier | modifier le wikicode]

  1. ↑ Profil de Sacha Zala sur Documents Diplomatiques Suisses
  2. ↑ CV de Sacha Zala
  3. ↑ Profil wikipedia de Sacha Zala
  4. ↑ Profil de Sacha Zala sur le site de l’Université de Berne
  5. ↑ Site personnel de Sacha Zala
Récupérée de « https://baripedia.org/index.php?title=The_League_of_Nations_as_an_organization_for_technical,_economic,_social_and_humanitarian_cooperation&oldid=45300 »