What constitutes “sovereign statehood”? Elaborate answers can be given under international law, under theories of international relations, under jurisprudence, and under general political philosophy. But from the point of view of African countries the empirical answer is perhaps the simplest. These countries know that it was not when they assumed control of their domestic affairs that they ceased to be colonies. As a matter of experience, many of them found that the ultimate expression of sovereignty was not direct rule internally but direct diplomatic relations with other countries abroad. The very process of attaining independence might, in their case, be reduced to a single catch phrase—“from foreign rule to foreign relations.” In other words, an African colony was said to have attained independence when it had moved from the status of being under foreign rule to the status of conducting foreign relations with full authority.

In the period since the publication of the special number of this journal devoted to Africa and international organization, one development of potentially considerable importance in this connection has transpired within Africa. This is the launching of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) and its embarcation on the task of forging a measure of peaceful collaboration out of the multitude of mixed aspirations and competing, indeed conflicting, interests of the African states.

Recent schemes for international currency reform are unrealistic to the extent that they are derived as optimum solutions to economic problems alone. International currency arrangements are instances of international organization generally, and consequently fall within the scope of political sociology as much as—if not more than—of pure economics. Political complications must therefore not only be acknowledged, as they usually are, but analyzed as well, as they often are not. This essay represents an inquiry in that direction.

The Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (hereinafter referred to as the Convention), signed in Rome on November 4, 1950 entered into force on September 3, 1953. It provides in Article 19 for the establishment of two organs whose task it is “to ensure the observance of the engagements undertaken” in the Convention by the contracting parties: a European Commission of Human Rights (hereinafter referred to as the Commission) and a European Court of Human Rights (hereinafter referred to as the Court).

The Security Council met once again on March 17, 1964, to consider the India-Pakistan question which had initially been brought to the attention of the Council in letters addressed to the President of the Security Council from Pakistan's Minister of External Affairs and India's permanent representative. The Council considered the question during its 1104th and 1105th meetings, held on March 17 and 20, 1964, and again during its 1112th–1117th meetings, May 5–18, 1964. At the invitation of the President, the representative of India, Mr. Chakravarty, and Pakistan's Minister of External Affairs, Mr. Bhutto, took places at the Security Council table. The President indicated that the present meeting had been convened upon the request of the Pakistani representative, although the Indian representative had expressed his objection to the request for an early meeting.

The resumed 36th session of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), comprising the 1304th–1313th meetings, was held in New York on December 16–23, 1963, and on January 23, 1964, under the presidency of Mr. A. Patiño (Colombia).

South West Africa cases (Ethiopia v. South Africa; Liberia v. South Africa): By an order of February 5, 1963, the President of the International Court of Justice fixed September 30, 1963, as the time limit for the filing of the South African countermemorial in the South West Africa cases. At the request of the government of South Africa, the Court in its order of September 18, 1963, extended this time limit to January 10, 1964. By its order of January 20, 1964, the International Court noted that the South African countermemorial had been filed, and it fixed as time limits June 20, 1964, for the filing of the replies of Ethiopia and Liberia; and November 20, 1964, for the filing of the rejoinder by South Africa

The Board of Governors of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development held its 1963 annual meeting jointly with that of the International Monetary Fund in Washington, D.C., from September 30 to October 4, 1963, under the chairmanship of Mr. Guido Carli, Governor for Italy.1 The meeting was held in conjunction with the annual meetings of the Bank's affiliates, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the International Development Association (IDA). The new President of the Bank and its affiliates, Mr. George D. Woods, presented in his annual address a brief summary of the highlights of the year's activities and a more detailed picture of the future opportunities of the Bank

The Board of Governors of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) held its eighteenth annual meeting in Washington, D.C., from September 30 through October 4, 1963, under the chairmanship of Mr. Emilio Colombo, Governor for Italy. Introducing the annual report, Mr. Pierre-Paul Schweitzer, the new Chairman of the Executive Board and Managing Director of the Fund, welcomed the governors of the twenty member countries which had joined the Fund since the last annual meeting: Algeria, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo (Brazzaville), Congo (Leopoldville), Dahomey, Gabon, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Jamaica, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Rwanda, Trinidad and Tobago, Uganda, and Upper Volta. With the addition of these new members the Fund had a total membership of 102. Mr. Schweitzer commented that in the fiscal year ended in April 1963 eighteen countries had purchased the equivalent of $580 million from the Fund and the equivalent of $807 million had been received in repurchases. Both purchases and repurchases were less than in the previous fiscal year when the United Kingdom had made a very large drawing. The Fund had also made stand-by arrangements with twenty countries under which $1.8 billion was available, including the recently renewed stand-by arrangement of $1.0 billion with the United Kingdom and the $500 million stand-by arrangement with the United States.

The Executive Board of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) held its 63rd session in Paris from October 26 to December 12, 1962, under the chairmanship of Dr. Mohamed Awad (United Arab Republic). The Board took note of the salient developments and progress outlined by the Acting Director-General, Mr. Rene1 Maheu, in his oral report on the activities of UNESCO since the Board's 62nd session.

The International Bureau of the Universal Postal Union (UPU) was notified in Demember 1962 that, due to the Chinese invasion and the consequent national emergency, India could not host the fifteenth Universal Postal Congress which had been scheduled to open on March 1, 1963, in New Delhi. On January 17, 1963, the Director of the International Bureau, Mr. Weber, received from the Austrian government an official invitation to hold the fifteenth Congress in Vienna in June 1964.

The fourth Congress of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) was opened in Geneva on April 1, 1963, by the President of WMO, Mr. André Viaut. The Congress, which met until April 27, was attended by the delegates of 103 member countries, observers from three nonmember nations, the presidents of all WMO technical commissions, and representatives of the UN and of 24 other international organizations. Various agenda items were the subject of preliminary discussions in working committees before final decisions were taken in plenary sessions. Congress decisions related to general and legal questions, technical questions, and administrative and budgetary questions.

At Managua, Nicaragua, on December 13, 1960, the governments of Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua signed the General Treaty, the basic treaty of the Central American Program of Economic Integration (CAPEI), often referred to as the Central American Common Market (CACM). Also signed at the same time were the Agreement establishing the Central American Bank for Economic Integration and the Protocol to the Central American Agreement on the Equalization of Import Duties and Charges. Sixteen months later the government of Costa Rica acceded to the three agreements.

A new intergovernmental financial institution formed by the eight member countries of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (COMECON) came into being on January 1, 1964, under the name of the International Bank for Economic Cooperation with headquarters in Moscow. Its initial capital was fixed at 60 million rubles (equivalent to §66,666,000), and was to increase to 300 million rubles within five years.

The European Parliament met in Strasbourg on May 14–15, 1963. Mr. Albert Coppé, Vice President of the High Authority of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), presented the Community's annual report. He stressed the urgent need of a common energy policy and exposed the disturbing position of the steel market in which production was at its maximum and yet imports were rising. Mr. Coppé expressed the High Authority's wish that the problems now facing ECSC be included in the discussions of proposals for synchronization of European Community programs, and he reaffirmed the High Authority's position which was in principle favorable to the merger of the European Community's executive institutions.

The third period of sessions of the conference of the contracting parties of the Latin American Free Trade Association (LAFTA) was held in Montevideo, Uruguay, during October 1963. Continuing for almost three months, the conference resulted in the negotiation of some 1,000 tariff concessions. This was well under the 2,500 concessions granted at the first conference and the 5,000 granted at the second conference. Most of the concession were, however, on products not previously listed; many were on manufactured goods and a number were on products not being produced in the member countries.

The ninth annual Conference of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Parliamentarians was held in Paris on November 4–8, 1963. Addressing the parliamentarians, Mr. Dirk U. Stikker, Secretary-General of NATO, outlined the three essential aspects of the evolution in international relationships presently confronting the Alliance: first, relations between East and East—the rivalry between the Soviet Union and Communist China; secondly, relations between East and West—the questions arising from the Soviet Union's agreement to sign a partial test-ban treaty and the relations between the West and the uncommitted world; and, thirdly, relations between West and West—relations within the Atlantic Alliance itself.

The Council of Ministers of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) held its second session in Lagos, Nigeria, on February 24–29, 1964. Adopting nineteen resolutions at this session, the Council sought to fulfill the purposes of the OAU Charter by coordinating and harmonizing the general policies of OAU member states.

The Council of the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) held its ninth annual meeting in Manila on April 13–15, 1964, under the chairmanship of Salvador P. Lopez, Secretary of Foreign Affairs of the Philippines. The communiqué issued at the close of the meeting expressed the Ministers' contention that SEATO had had, and continued to have, a most important stabilizing influence in Southeast Asia. Despite the sharpening of the Sino-Soviet dispute, the Council agreed that world domination remained the aim of communism and that vigilance could not therefore be relaxed. In addition to measures to deter overt aggression and active insurgency, the Ministers agreed that emphasis on the development of economic and social conditions should be continued in order to strengthen national resistance to subversion. Reaffirming that the determination of national policy rested with individual governments, the Council declared that material support and encouragement should be given to those nations which, in defending themselves, needed and requested such support.

Covering the financial year from April 1, 1962, to March 31, 1963, the 33rd annual report of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) was submitted to the annual general meeting of the Bank held in Basle on June 10, 1963.