The Technical Preparatory Committee for the International Health Conference, met in Paris in March and April 1946 under the chairmanship of Dr René Sand of Belgium.
The International Health Conference was held in New York from 19 June to 22 July 1946. In four and a half weeks the Conference succeeded in producing: the Constitution of the World Health Organization ; a protocol for the termination of the Rome Agreement of 9 December 1907 and the performance by the Organization, or the Interim Commission, of the duties and functions of the Office International d'Hygiène Publique (OIHP) ; and an arrangement for the setting-up of an Interim Commission to make preparations for the First World Health Assembly, to carry on without interruption the surviving activities of the League of Nations Health Organization and those of the OIHP and United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA), and to perform other urgent duties pending the final establishment of the Organization.
The Interim Commission of the World Health Organization was set up by paragraph I of the Arrangement of 22 July 1946 concluded by the governments represented at the International Health Conference. The Interim Commission held five sessions and served as midwife to the as yet unborn World Health Organization.