# United States Treaty Series/Volume 1/International Office of Public Health

This is the official United States government version published in the first volume of the United States Treaty Series (Bevans).
INTERNATIONAL OFFICE OF PUBLIC HEALTH
* Arrangement and annex signed at Rome December 9, 1907
* Senate advice and consent to ratification February 10, 1908
* Ratified by the President of the United States February 15, 1908
* Ratification of the United States deposited at Rome August 1, 1908
* Entered into force November 15, 1908
* Proclaimed by the President of the United States November 17, 1908
* Terminated by protocol of July 22, 1946, as between contracting parties to the protocol; terminated definitively for the United States November 15, 1950
35 Stat. 2061; Treaty Series 511
[TRANSLATION]
Arrangement
The Governments of Belgium, Brazil, Spain, the United States, the French Republic, Great Britain and Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, Switzerland, and the Government of His Highness the Khedive of Egypt, deeming it expedient to organize the International Office of Public Hygiene, referred to in the Paris Sanitary Convention of December 3, 1903, have resolved to conclude an arrangement to that effect and agreed upon the following:
Article I
The High Contracting Parties engage to found and maintain an International Office of Public Hygiene with headquarters at Paris.
Article II
The Office will perform its functions under the authority and supervision of a Committee composed of delegates of the contracting Governments. The membership and rights and duties of the Committee, as well as the ​organization and powers of the said Office are determined by the organic by-laws which are annexed to the present arrangement and are considered as forming an integral part thereof.
Article III
The cost of installation, as well as the annual expenses for the conduct and maintenance of the Office shall be covered by the quotas of the contracting States determined in accordance with the provisions of the by-laws referred to in Article II.
Article IV
The sums representing the quotas of the several contracting States shall be deposited by the said States through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the French Republic, at the beginning of every year in the "Caisse des dépôts et consignations" at Paris, from which they shall be drawn as needed against warrants of the Director of the Office.
Article V
The High Contracting Parties reserve the right to make, by joint agreement, in the present arrangement any change of which the usefulness shall have been demonstrated by experience.
Article VI
Governments that have not signed the present arrangement are, on their request, admitted to adhere thereto. Their adhesion shall be notified, through the diplomatic channel, to the Royal Government of Italy, and, by the latter, to the other Contracting Governments; it will imply a pledge to contribute to the payment of the expenses of the Office in the manner referred to in Article III.
Article VII
The present arrangement shall be ratified and the ratifications shall be deposited at Rome as soon as possible; it shall be put into operation from the date on which the deposit of ratifications shall have been effected.
Article VIII
The present arrangement is concluded for a term of seven years. At the expiration of that period, it shall continue in force for new periods of seven years between the States that shall not have notified, one year before the expiration of each period, their intention to terminate the effects so far as they are concerned.
In faith whereof the undersigned, duly empowered thereto, have drawn up the present arrangement to which they have affixed their seals.
Done at Rome, the ninth of December one thousand nine hundred and seven, in one copy which shall remain deposited in the archives of the Royal ​Government of Italy and duly certified copies thereof shall be delivered, through the diplomatic channel, to the contracting Parties.
Annex
ORGANIC BY-LAWS OF THE INTERNATIONAL OFFICE OF PUBLIC HYGIENE
Article 1
There is established in Paris an International Office of Public Hygiene under the States which accept participation in its operation.
Article 2
The Office cannot in any way meddle in the administration of the several States.
It is independent of the authorities of the country in which it is placed.
It corresponds directly with the higher health authorities of the several countries and with the Boards of Health.
Article 3
The Government of the French Republic shall, on the application of the International Committee referred to in Article 6, take such steps as may be requisite to have the Office recognized as an institution of public utility.
Article 4
The main object of the Office is to collect and bring to the knowledge of ​the participating States facts and documents of a general character concerning public health and especially regarding infectious diseases, notably the cholera, plague and yellow fever, as well as the measures taken to check these diseases.
Article 5
The Government shall inform the Office of the measures taken by them toward the enforcement of the international sanitary conventions. The Office shall suggest amendments it might be desirable to make to the provisions of those conventions.
Article 6
The Office is placed under the authority and supervision of an International Committee consisting of technical representatives designated by the participating States in the proportion of one representative for each State.
Each State is allowed a number of votes inversely proportioned to the number of the class to which it belongs as regards its participation in the expenses of the Office (See Article 11).
Article 7
The Committee of the Office meets periodically at least once a year; the length of its sessions is unlimited.
The members of the Committee elect, by secret ballot, a chairman whose term of office shall be three years.
Article 8
The business of the office is conducted by a salaried staff including:
* a Director;
* a Secretary General,
* such force as may be necessary to perform the work of the Office.
The personnel of the Office shall not be permitted to fill any other salaried office.
The Director and Secretary General shall be appointed by the Committee.
The Director shall attend the meetings of the Committee in an advisory capacity.
The appointment and dismissal of employés of all classes appertain to the Director and shall be reported by him to the Committee.
Article 9
The information collected by the Office shall be brought to the knowledge of the participant States by means of a Bulletin or of special communications addressed to them either in regular course or at their request.
​In addition, the Office shall show periodically the results of its labors in official reports to be communicated to the participating Governments.
Article 10
The Bulletin, which shall be issued at least once a month, shall include especially:
* 1. The laws and general or local regulations promulgated in the several countries in regard to contagious diseases;
* 2. Information concerning the progress of infectious diseases;
* 3. Information concerning the work done or measures taken toward the sanitation of localities;
* 4. Statistics concerning public health;
* 5. Notices of publications.
The official language of the Office and Bulletin shall be the French language. The Committee may order parts of the Bulletin to be published in other languages.
Article 11
The expenses necessary for the performance of the duties of the Office, estimated at 150,000 francs per annum, shall be defrayed by the States signatory to the Convention, their quotas being determined according to the following classes:
* First class: Brazil, Spain, the United States, France, Great Britain, British India, Italy, Russia, at the rate of 25 units;
* Second class, at the rate of 20 units;
* Third class, Belgium, Egypt, the Netherlands, at the rate of 15 units;
* Fourth class, Switzerland, at the rate of 10 units;
* Fifth class, at the rate of 5 units;
* Sixth class, at the rate of 3 units.
This sum of 150,000 francs cannot be exceeded except by consent of the signatory Powers.
Every State is at liberty to have itself entered into a higher class at some future time.
The States that may hereafter adhere to the Convention shall select the class in which they wish to be entered.
Article 12
A sum intended to form a reserve fund shall be taken from the annual resources. The total sum of said reserve, which cannot exceed the amount of the annual budget, shall be invested in first class State securities.
Article 13
The members of the Committee shall receive, out of the working funds of ​the Office, an allowance for traveling and other expenses. They shall also receive an attendance counter for each meeting which they attend.
Article 14
The Committee shall fix the amount to be set aside annually from its budget for a fund intended to secure a retirement pension for the Office force.
Article 15
The Committee shall draw up its annual estimates and shall approve the account of expenditures. It shall make the organic regulations governing the personnel, as well as all the arrangements necessary for the performance of the duties of the Office.
The regulations as well as the arrangements shall be reported by the Committee to the participant States and cannot be modified without their assent.
Article 16
A statement of the financial management of the Office shall be submitted annually to the participant States at the close of the fiscal year.
* ↑ Date of closing of procès-verbal of deposit of ratifications, by agreement of the signatory powers.
* ↑ TIAS 1754, post. The duties and functions of the Office were assumed de facto by the Interim Commission of the World Health Organization as of Jan. 1, 1947, pending official entry into force of the protocol on Oct. 20, 1947.
* ↑ Pursuant to notice of termination given by the United States Nov. 3, 1949, in accordance with terms of art. 8; termination effective at end of sixth 7-year period.
* ↑ TS 466, ante, p. 359.
* ↑ It is understood that the phrase "Boards of Health" applies to the Sanitary Councils of Alexandria, Constantinople, Tangier, Teheran and to any other Councils that may be charged with the duty of enforcing International Sanitary Conventions. [Footnote in original.]
Footnotes
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it is a work of the United States federal government (see 17 U.S.C. 105).
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