Displacement, 1939–1952

Abstract

Care for refugees and displaced persons after the Second World War brought international organizations into a position of responsibility for providing services directly to individuals, creating another practical institutional precedent for intergovernmental activities and public responsibility as institutional and pragmatic context for the language of a right to health being drafted at this time. Health professionals who were themselves refugees and displaced persons took charge of health services. Governments-in-exile established extraterritorial national health services that built capacity for more general refugee health provisions and, within a year of liberation, an extensive health service operated for displaced persons under the United Nations’ care. This chapter introduces the International Refugee Organization’s health division as part of the history of international health taking shape in the transition from the League of Nations Health Organization to the World Health Organization and UNICEF.