Edward Phelan

Edward Joseph Phelan (born  July 25, 1888 in Tramore , County Waterford , † September 15, 1967 in Geneva ) was an Irish UN functionary. From 1920 he worked for the International Labor Organization (ILO) and from 1941 to 1948 its fourth general director. Historically, he is considered to be the first official in the service of an international organization .

Life

Edward Phelan was born in 1888 in Tramore in County Waterford Irish and completed from 1906 to 1911 at the University of Liverpool to study physics , mathematics and the French language . He then worked for the Board of Trade , where he was initially responsible for creating price indices for the cost of living and later also took on managerial functions. In 1916 he moved to the newly established Ministry of Labor in the British government of Prime Minister David Lloyd George , from where he was later temporarily assigned to the Foreign Office as an advisor .

Due to his experience both in labor law and in the Foreign Ministry, he was a member of the British delegation to the Paris Peace Conference from January 1919 after the end of the First World War . In addition to representatives from a number of other countries, the British delegation also introduced a proposal for the creation of a permanent international organization in the field of labor legislation, which was based on a draft by Edward Phelan. After the establishment of the International Labor Organization in April 1919, he became the first permanent employee of the ILO in January 1920.

His extensive responsibilities included managing finances and hiring additional employees. With the establishment of the headquarters of the ILO in Geneva in July 1920, he was effectively the third highest person in charge in the hierarchy of the organization after the director and his deputy. From 1938 he acted as deputy director and from 1941, after the resignation of John Gilbert Winant , as acting director of the ILO. After the end of the Second World War he was appointed general manager in 1946, officially retroactively to February 1941. At the age of 60, he retired in 1948.

Edward Phelan was married from 1940, the marriage remained childless. He died in Geneva in 1967.

Act

Edward Phelan organized the first International Labor Conference held in Washington, DC in October 1919 and drafted a number of fundamental texts for the International Labor Organization. These include in particular its constitution and the “Philadelphia Declaration” passed in May 1944 on the goals and purposes of the ILO, which emphasized the importance of human rights as a new element . The “Philadelphia Declaration” became an appendix to the ILO constitution in 1946.

Edward Phelan's idea also goes back to the fact that the delegations to the International Labor Conferences, the highest body of the ILO, include not only representatives of the governments, but also representatives of employers and employees . He also proposed the 2: 1: 1 ratio for the composition of the delegations, which is still valid today, by which the representatives of the employers and the employees together have the same share of the votes as the delegates of the governments.

In addition, he led the ILO through the Second World War and, after the dissolution of the League of Nations, ensured its continued existence as a specialized agency of the United Nations . In his time he was considered the intellectual backbone of the ILO, which received the Nobel Peace Prize two years after his death . He was also a pioneer of a new profession, from which the international civil service in its current importance and size developed over time.

Awards and commemorations

Edward Phelan received honorary doctorates from the National University of Ireland , Laval University and the University of Montreal in recognition of his work . He was appointed commander of the French Legion of Honor in 1951 . In addition, he received the Brazilian Order of the Southern Cross and the Grand Officer's Cross of the Mexican Order of the Aztec Eagle .

The legacy of Edward Phelan and his wife made it possible for the National University of Ireland, among other things, to carry out construction work at its administrative headquarters in Merrion Square in Dublin , where a conference room known as the Phelan Room has since borne his name. The university is also using the legacy to finance the EJ Phelan Fellowship in International Law , a scholarship for doctoral students in the field of international law .

literature

• Julie Wolf (Ed.): Edward Phelan and the ILO. The Life and Views of an International Social Actor. International Labor Office, Geneva 2009, ISBN 978-92-2-121983-5 .
• Thomas Kenneth Whitaker: Edward Phelan 1888-1967. In: Michael D. Higgins: The Future of Work. National University of Ireland and International Labor Office, Dublin and Geneva 2015, ISBN 978-09-0-151070-9 , pp. 22/23.
• Geert Van Goethem: Phelan's War: The International Labor Organization in Limbo (1941-1948). In: Jasmien Van Daele, Magaly Rodriguez Garcia, Geert Van Goethem, Marcel van der Linden (Eds.): ILO Histories: Essays on the International Labor Organization and Its Impact on the World During the Twentieth Century. Series: International and Comparative Social History. Volume 12. Peter Lang, Bern a. a. 2010, ISBN 3-03-430516-8 , pp. 313-340
• Michael O'Callaghan: Phelan, Edward Joseph. In: Warren F. Kuehl (Ed.): Biographical Dictionary of Internationalists. Greenwood Press, Westport 1983, ISBN 0-31-322129-4 , pp. 575/576

Web links

• Edward Phelan - Director-General of the International Labor Organization, 1941–1948 Information on the ILO website (English, with picture)