Abstract
In August, 1946, the International Penal and Penitentiary Commission met in Berne. The war had interrupted its labor and this was the first time since 1938 that the Commission had been able to convene. In the meanwhile, its president, Giovanni Novelli, had died. Its vice-president Alexander Paterson was incapacitated by an illness which was to terminate in his death the following year. Mr. Lionel Fox, chairman of the Prison Commission of England and Wales, came to the meeting as one of the British delegates, the other being Miss Margery Fry, and when he was elected to chair the sessions, he noted that this was the first time that he had been chosen to preside over an international meeting.
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Reference
The Commission was not established on the basis of any convention to which a state became a signatory, nor was any such agreement adopted later. The inter-governmental character of the Commission was consequently different from that of agencies based on formal conventions. This may have had a bearing on its ultimate fate. The niggardly financial support given the Commission by its member governments is obvious when one considers that each such government was to pay annual “dues” at the rate of 170 Swiss francs (about 40 U.S. dollars) per million of its population. In 1939, — a banner year — the total dues paid amounted to less than 21.000 dollars, of which sum the United States accounted for, in round numbers, 5,000, Germany for 3,000, Japan for 2,500, and England and Italy for less than 2,000 each. It is remarkable that the Commission could function at all, and even more remarkable that with such slim resources it performed so many worth while tasks.
ECOSOC Resolution 7 (I). See United Nations, Economic and Social Council, Official Records, First Year: First Session, pp. 166–167.
Minutes of the Meeting of the Executive Committee of the International Penal and Penitentiary Commission, Berne, April, 1946, p. 20.
Proceedings of the International Penal and Penitentiary Commission. Session held in Berne, August, 1946, p. 5.
Ibid., pp. 88–89.
International Penal and Penitentiary Commission, Proceedings of the Session held in Berne, August, 1948, p. 153.
Ibid., p. 89.
International Penal and Penitentiary Commission. Proceedings of the Session held in Berne, August, 1949, pp. 108–109.
International Penal and Penitentiary Commission. Proceedings of the Session held at The Hague, August 1950, pp. 104–106. Subsequently, the library was donated to the United Nations and sent to Geneva and the archives were deposited at the United Nations in New York.
Sec. 3a of the “Charter concerning the International Penal and Penitentiary Foundation” dated July 5, 1951. See International Penal and Penitentiary Commission. Proceedings of the Session held at Berne, July, 1951, pp. 144–151.
Recueil de documents en matière pénale et pénitentiaire, vol. 15, 1951, pp. 392–393.
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© 1964 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
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Sellin, T. (1964). Lionel Fox and the International Penal and Penitentiary Commission. In: Studies in Penology / Études Pénologiques. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-6530-5_15
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-6530-5_15
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