# Organizing the world From the first public unions of the 1860s through the League of Nations to the UN system: the slow construction of standing world institutions. *This story part of: State, law, and coercion* *Making peace: the great settlements led to this story* ## 9 June 1815 — Founding of the Central Commission for Navigation on the Rhine The Final Act of the Congress of Vienna establishes a permanent commission to guarantee free navigation on the Rhine, generally regarded as the oldest international organization still in existence. ## 17 May 1865 — Founding of the International Telegraph Union Twenty European states sign the International Telegraph Convention in Paris, founding the world's first modern international organization to standardize telegraph networks. It became the International Telecommunication Union in 1932. ## September 1873 — Founding of the International Meteorological Organization The first International Meteorological Congress in Vienna founds the International Meteorological Organization to standardize weather observations across borders. It was replaced by the World Meteorological Organization in 1950. ## 9 October 1874 — Founding of the Universal Postal Union The Treaty of Bern creates the General Postal Union, soon renamed the Universal Postal Union, unifying the world's postal systems into a single territory for the exchange of mail. ## 20 May 1875 — Founding of the International Bureau of Weights and Measures Seventeen nations sign the Metre Convention in Paris, creating the International Bureau of Weights and Measures at Sevres to maintain worldwide standards of measurement, the basis of the metric system's international governance. ## 20 March 1883 — Founding of the Paris Union for the Protection of Industrial Property Eleven states sign the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, creating the first international union for patents and trademarks, an ancestor of today's WIPO. ## 9 September 1886 — Founding of the Berne Union for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works The Berne Convention, championed by Victor Hugo's circle, creates an international union giving authors copyright protection across member states, the foundation of modern international copyright law. ## 30 June 1889 — Founding of the Inter-Parliamentary Union Peace activists William Randal Cremer and Frederic Passy convene parliamentarians from several countries in Paris, founding the first permanent forum for political multilateral negotiations. ## 29 July 1899 — Founding of the Permanent Court of Arbitration The first Hague Peace Conference adopts a convention creating the Permanent Court of Arbitration, the first global mechanism for the peaceful settlement of disputes between states. ## 1905 — Founding of the International Institute of Agriculture At the initiative of David Lubin and King Victor Emmanuel III, states found the International Institute of Agriculture in Rome to collect world farm statistics. Its work passed to the FAO after 1945. ## 9 December 1907 — Founding of the Office International d'Hygiène Publique Twelve states sign an agreement in Rome creating a Paris-based international health office to track epidemic diseases and administer sanitary conventions, a forerunner of the World Health Organization. ## 11 April 1919 — Founding of the International Labour Organization The Paris Peace Conference adopts the ILO constitution as part of the Treaty of Versailles, creating a body that brings governments, employers and workers together to set international labor standards. Its first conference met in Washington in October 1919. ## 10 January 1920 — Founding of the League of Nations The Covenant of the League of Nations enters into force with the Treaty of Versailles, creating the first world organization dedicated to collective security and peace, headquartered in Geneva. ## 26 June 1945 — Founding of the International Court of Justice The UN Charter establishes the International Court of Justice as the principal judicial organ of the United Nations, succeeding the League's Permanent Court of International Justice. The court held its first sitting at The Hague in April 1946. ## 16 October 1945 — Founding of the Food and Agriculture Organization Delegates from 44 nations meeting in Quebec City establish the FAO to fight hunger and improve nutrition and agriculture worldwide. It later became the first specialized agency of the United Nations, based in Rome. ## 24 October 1945 — Founding of the United Nations The UN Charter, signed by 50 nations in San Francisco in June 1945, enters into force, creating the world organization for peace, security and cooperation that replaced the League of Nations. ## 16 November 1945 — Founding of UNESCO Representatives of 37 countries sign the UNESCO constitution in London, creating the UN agency for education, science and culture. The constitution entered into force in November 1946 and the agency set up its headquarters in Paris. ## 18 April 1946 — Dissolution of the League of Nations The final Assembly of the League of Nations votes to dissolve the organization, transferring its assets and remaining functions to the newly created United Nations. ## 11 December 1946 — Founding of UNICEF The UN General Assembly creates the International Children's Emergency Fund to help children in countries devastated by the Second World War. It became a permanent UN agency for children's welfare in 1953. ## 7 April 1948 — Founding of the World Health Organization The WHO constitution enters into force, creating the UN's health agency in Geneva. The date is now marked each year as World Health Day. ## 28 April 1949 — Founding of the modern Commonwealth of Nations The London Declaration allows India to remain in the Commonwealth as a republic, dropping allegiance to the Crown as a membership requirement and turning the body into a voluntary association of independent states. ## 8 December 1949 — Founding of UNRWA The UN General Assembly creates the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees to provide relief, education and health services to Palestinians displaced by the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. ## 14 December 1950 — Founding of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees The UN General Assembly establishes UNHCR to protect and assist refugees, initially to deal with people displaced by the Second World War. The Geneva-based agency has twice won the Nobel Peace Prize. ## December 1951 — Founding of the International Organization for Migration States meeting in Brussels create the Provisional Intergovernmental Committee for the Movement of Migrants from Europe to resettle people displaced by the Second World War. It evolved into the Geneva-based IOM. ## 29 July 1957 — Founding of the International Atomic Energy Agency The IAEA statute enters into force, creating the world's Atoms for Peace organization in Vienna to promote peaceful use of nuclear energy and guard against its military use. ## 1 September 1961 — Founding of the Non-Aligned Movement Leaders including Tito, Nehru, Nasser, Sukarno and Nkrumah open the first summit of nonaligned states in Belgrade, founding a movement of countries refusing to join either Cold War bloc. ## 19 December 1961 — Founding of the World Food Programme Parallel UN and FAO resolutions establish the World Food Programme in Rome to deliver food aid in emergencies. It grew into the world's largest humanitarian agency and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2020. ## 30 December 1964 — Founding of UNCTAD The UN General Assembly makes the UN Conference on Trade and Development a permanent organ, based in Geneva, to represent developing countries' interests in international trade. ## 22 November 1965 — Founding of the UN Development Programme The UN General Assembly merges the Expanded Programme of Technical Assistance and the Special Fund to create UNDP, the UN's main body for development aid to poorer countries. ## 17 November 1966 — Founding of UNIDO The UN General Assembly establishes the UN Industrial Development Organization, based in Vienna, to promote industrialization in developing countries. ## 14 July 1967 — Founding of the World Intellectual Property Organization The WIPO Convention is signed in Stockholm, creating a Geneva-based organization to administer international patent, trademark and copyright treaties. It became a UN specialized agency in 1974. ## 20 March 1970 — Founding of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie French-speaking states sign the Niamey Convention creating the Agency for Cultural and Technical Cooperation, the seed of today's Francophonie organization of French-speaking nations. ## 15 December 1972 — Founding of the UN Environment Programme Following the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment, the UN General Assembly creates UNEP as the UN's environmental authority, headquartered in Nairobi, the first major UN body based in the global South. ## 1977 — Founding of the International Fund for Agricultural Development IFAD is established as a UN specialized agency in Rome, an outcome of the 1974 World Food Conference, to finance agricultural development and fight rural poverty. ## 29 April 1997 — Founding of the OPCW The Chemical Weapons Convention enters into force, establishing the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to verify the destruction of chemical arsenals worldwide. It won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2013. ## 1 July 2002 — Founding of the International Criminal Court The Rome Statute of 1998 enters into force, establishing the first permanent international court to try individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.