Conciliation, Commissions of

organs created in accordance with the United Nations Charter to work out conditions for settling international disputes. The procedures for the formation and activity of commissions of conciliation were set forth in the Revised General Act for the Pacific Settlement of International Disputes of 1928. The act was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1949.

If the disputing states agree to conciliation, they themselves establish the commission’s composition and order of procedure for each specific dispute. The use of commissions of conciliation has been provided for in many international agreements, including some concluded by the USSR, for example, the conventions on conciliation procedure concluded by the USSR with Germany (1929), Finland (1932), Poland (1932), and France (1932). The institution of border commissioners is a special form of conciliation commission.