Officers of the Commission are the Chairman, the Vice Chairman, and the Executive Committee. The Chairman and Vice Chairman are elected by the Assembly for a term of two years from among the principal delegates. Six countries are elected at the same time to make up an Executive Committee. Those six governments each designate a representative to serve on the Committee, over which the Chairman presides. Candidates are proposed on a rotational basis from among the member nations.

National Committees of Cooperation are extensions of the IACW, working at the national level. They are presided over by the delegates to the Commission, who appoint members of the committees from among women of different fields of interest. The National Committees of Cooperation work with the delegate in advancing the aims and work programs of the IACW within the countries.

The Permanent Secretariat is the technical and administrative arm of the IACW. Its staff, headed by the Executive Secretary, is appointed by the Secretary General of the OAS with the approval of the Executive Committee of the IACW and is part of the General Secretariat of the OAS.

Membership (1972), the following OAS member governments have, currently or in the past, designated delegates to IACW:

Source: Department of State, Bureau of Inter-American Affairs, Permanent Mission of the United States to the Organization of American States.

3. Inter-American Indian Institute

Niños Heroes 139, Mexico 7, D.F.

Origin and development: Resolutions designed to effect a solution of inter-American Indian problems of continental significance were adopted at the VII and VIII International Conference of American States held in 1933 and 1938, respectively. The latter Conference recommended that the American governments send representatives to the First Inter-American Conference on Indian Life to study the desirability of creating an Inter-American Indian Institute. The first Inter-American Conference on Indian Life met at Patzcuaro, Mexico, in April 1940, and drafted a plan subsequently incorporated into a convention, the terms of which created the Inter-American Institute. The convention was open for signature in Mexico City, on November 1, 1940, and came into effect on December 31, 1941.

The Inter-American Indian Institute was registered as an InterAmerican Specialized Organization by the Council of the Organization of American States on March 17, 1953.

Initial date of U.S. participation: 1941.

Current authority for U.S. participation: Convention providing for the creation of the Inter-American Indian Institute, November 29, 1940, 56 Stat. 1303. TS 978.

Purpose of organization: The Institute develops information of use to the member governments in planning for the economic, social, and cultural betterment of Indians; initiates, directs, and coordinates scientific investigations, the results of which may be applied to the solution of Indian problems; and acts in a consultative and advisory capacity for national bureaus of Indian affairs. Moreover, it acts as secretariat for the Inter-American Indian Conferences and cooperates in the implementation of resolutions adopted by these conferences. The Institute collects, edits, and distributes information and reports of investigations on all phases of Indian life in the Americas; supplies information on legislation for, and the administration of, Indian groups in the American Republics and on the activities of institutions concerned with Indian groups.

Governing body: The Governing Board exercises control over the Institute. It is composed of one representative from each member government, and ordinarily meets every 2 years. The Board elects the Executive Committee, which is vested with the executive powers of the Institute under the general policy guidance and control of the Governing Board. The Executive Committee is composed of five members elected for a period of 5 years in such a manner that two are elected at one occasion and three at another.

4. Inter-American Institute of Agricultural Sciences

San José, Costa Rica

Origin and development: In 1930, the First Inter-American Conference on Agriculture resolved that an international agricultural organization should be established in the Americas. In 1940, a similar resolution was adopted by the Eighth American Scientific Congress. Subsequently, the Pan American Union appointed an Inter-American Commission on Tropical Agriculture to make recommendations for the establishment of an Inter-American Institute of Agricultural Sciences.

Following recommendations of the Commission, the Inter-American Institute of Agricultural Sciences was incorporated under the laws of the District of Columbia, on July 18, 1942, with the principal field office established at Turrialba, Costa Rica, on land donated by the Government of Costa Rica.

A convention to provide permanent status to the Institute was negotiated and came into force on November 30, 1944. A Protocol of Amendment to the Convention on the Institute was opened for signature by the member states on December 1, 1958, and is to enter into force when ratified by all the states parties to the convention. The protocol provides that the Institute's Boards of Directors shall preferably be composed of Ministry of Agriculture officials of the participating states, and it changes the quota system for the support of the Institute.

Following the establishment of the Organization of American States, the Institute was recognized as an Inter-American Specialized Organization on February 16, 1949.

Initial date of U.S. participation: 1944.

Current authority for U.S. participation: Convention on the InterAmerican Institute of Agricultural Sciences, January 15, 1944, 58 Stat. 1169, TS 987.

Purpose of organization: The purposes of the Institute as stated in Article II of the convention are "to encourage and advance the development of agricultural sciences in the American Republics through research, teaching, and extension activities in the theory and practice of agriculture and related arts and sciences."

The Institute carries on its program through (1) demonstration farms, on which students receive practical training and on which modern methods and equipment are tested and adapted; (2) basic research and research on specified projects carried on by resident and visiting scientists; (3) teaching for graduate students and technicians who are to return to their own countries to occupy scientific or administrative positions; and (4) occasional inter-American technical meetings.

Governing body: The Board of Directors of the Institute consists of the representatives of the American Republics serving on the Council of the Organization of American States. In the Annual Meeting of the Board of Directors, in which the Ministers of Agriculture from member countries participate, budgetary and policy matters are decided upon. Membership (1972):

5. Pan American Health Organization

525 23d Street N.W., Washington, D.C.

Origin and development: The Pan American Health Organization had its origin in a resolution adopted at the Second International Conference of American States, held at Mexico City in 1901-02, which recommended the calling of periodic public health conferences of representatives of the American Republics and the creation of a permanent International Sanitary Bureau in Washington. As a result of this resolution, the First General International Sanitary Conference of the American Republics was held in Washington in December 1902; this Conference established the Bureau and defined its functions. In October 1905, at the Second Inter-American Sanitary Conference, the first Pan American International Sanitary Convention was concluded. This was the forerunner of the Pan American Sanitary Code of 1924. The same "International Sanitary Bureau" was changed to Pan American Sanitary Bureau in 1923.

At the Seventh Pan American Sanitary Conference, held in Havana in November 1924, a revised Pan American Sanitary Code was embodied in a new convention. This code was signed November 14, 1924, and entered into force on June 26, 1925. It broadened the scope of the Bureau's activities, outlined the obligations of member states to the Bureau and designated it as the central coordinating health agency of the member states of the Pan American Union.

The 12th Pan American Sanitary Conference, held in Caracas in January 1947, adopted the name "Pan American Sanitary Organization," approved a reorganization plan and agreed that the Organization should act as the regional agency of the World Health Organization. The Directing Council (which was set up by the 12th Conference) met in Buenos Aires in September 1947, and adopted a new constitution for the Organization.

At the 15th Pan American Sanitary Conference held in San Juan in September 1958, the name of the Organization was changed to Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) to reflect more accurately the activities and purpose of the Organization.

PAHO was designated a specialized organization of the Organization of American States on May 23, 1950.

Initial date of U.S. participation: 1925.

Current authority for U.S. participation: The Pan American Sanitary Code, November 14, 1924, 44 Stat. 2031, TS 714.

Purpose of organization: The functions and objectives of the Pan American Health Organization include (1) a continuing attack on disease at its sources, in order to reduce or eliminate danger of transmission of disease and disease vectors in the Americas; (2) reduction or elimination of the necessity of costly quarantines; (3) stimulation and support of national health authorities in the Americas in their efforts to control disease, including assistance in connection with plan