The Commissions

Why does this page exist on its own?

Cambridge Examiner Reports 2021–2025 flag commission confusion as the single most common error in KQ2. The ILO, Health Committee, Refugees Committee and Slavery Commission are completely separate bodies with distinct memberships, functions, methods, and achievements.

Students who conflate them — describing ILO work when asked about the Health Committee, or mixing refugees and slavery — lose marks every time. This page treats each one as a distinct topic so you can keep them clearly separate in the exam.

1

International Labour Organization

✦ Brought together governments, employers and workers to negotiate international labour standards
✦ Banned poisonous white lead from paint
✦ Campaigned for the 48-hour working week and 8-hour day
✦ Secured limitations on working hours for children
✦ Could only 'name and shame' — no enforcement power over member states
✦ Majority of members refused to adopt recommendations, citing cost

Focus: working conditions · wages · child labour

Do not attribute ILO work to the Health Committee. These are completely separate bodies with separate mandates. The ILO dealt with working conditions; the Health Committee dealt with disease.

2

Health Committee

✦ Tackled dangerous diseases internationally through coordinated research and campaigns
✦ Sponsored research institutes in Singapore, London and Denmark
✦ Developed vaccines against leprosy and malaria
✦ Worked with the Soviet government to prevent a typhus epidemic in Siberia
✦ Organised an international campaign against mosquitoes to reduce malaria
✦ Became the basis for the World Health Organization (WHO) after 1945 — its most significant long-term legacy
✦ Generally regarded as the most successful of the League's commissions

Focus: disease · vaccines · international health cooperation → WHO

Malaria was reduced, not eradicated. Cambridge penalises the claim that it was eradicated — the mosquito campaign made progress, but malaria was not eliminated.

3

Refugees Committee

✦ Returned approximately 400,000–500,000 prisoners of war to their home countries after WWI
✦ Tackled cholera, smallpox and dysentery in Turkish refugee camps (1922)
✦ Issued Nansen Passports — internationally recognised travel documents for stateless refugees
✦ Chronically short of funds throughout its operation

Focus: displaced persons · Nansen Passports · POW repatriation

The repatriation figure is approximately 400,000–500,000. Cambridge notes that statistics vary greatly between scripts — use this range rather than a single precise figure.

4

Slavery Commission

✦ Aimed to abolish slavery and the slave trade worldwide
✦ Freed 200,000 slaves in British Sierra Leone
✦ Organised raids against slave traders in Burma
✦ Challenged forced labour on the Tanganyika railway — death rate reduced from 50% to 4%
✦ Published reports pressurising governments to act; Iraq, Nepal and Jordan cited as examples where practices changed

Focus: abolition · forced labour · naming governments

Do not confuse with the ILO or Refugees Committee. Cambridge confirms this confusion occurs every year — a significant number of candidates write about refugees when asked about slavery, and vice versa.

Also: Mandates Commission (lower exam focus)

✦ Supervised the former German and Ottoman colonies taken over by the League after WWI
✦ Mandated territories were administered by Britain and France on behalf of the League
✦ Monitored the treatment of populations in those territories — in theory, if not always in practice

Rarely examined directly — know it exists; do not confuse with the four main commissions

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The four main commissions are completely separate — never conflate them. ILO = working conditions and labour standards. Health Committee = disease, vaccines, international health coordination. Refugees Committee = displaced persons and stateless people. Slavery Commission = abolition of slavery and forced labour. Each one must be named precisely and its specific work described accurately.
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Questions specifying one commission must not include material from another. If the question asks about the Health Committee, do not write about refugees or the ILO. Examiners report that mixed answers cannot reach Level 3 because they demonstrate a fundamental misunderstanding of the League's structure.
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The Health Committee's key significance is that it became the basis for the WHO. It is not enough to say it 'worked on diseases' — that is a Level 2 description. The Level 4–5 point is that it established the principle and infrastructure of international health cooperation, which survived the League and became the World Health Organization after 1945.
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A significant number of candidates write about refugees when asked about slavery, and vice versa. These are entirely different problems addressed by entirely different bodies. Slavery = enslaved people and forced labour. Refugees = displaced, stateless, or imprisoned people following wars. They share nothing except belonging to the League's commission framework.

Part (a) · 4 marks

What / Describe questions

✦ Describe the work of the Health Committee and Refugees Commission.
✦ Describe the work of the Slavery Commission.
✦ What were the agencies of the League of Nations?

Two specific factual points per commission named. If the question names two commissions, cover both — not just one.

Part (b) · 6 marks

Why / Explain questions

✦ Why was the work of the League's agencies important?
✦ Why was the Health Committee's work significant?

Two developed reasons, each explained with specific evidence. Significance = WHY it mattered, not just WHAT was done.

The Key Analytical Move Cambridge Rewards

Don't just describe what each commission did — explain why it mattered. Description alone is Level 2. Significance is what pushes answers to Level 3 and above.

Health Committee significance: It became the basis for the WHO — establishing international health cooperation as a permanent institution that outlasted the League itself. That is a legacy that has shaped the modern world.

Refugees Committee significance: The scale (400,000–500,000 people repatriated) and the precedent — for the first time, an international body accepted collective responsibility for displaced persons. The Nansen Passport created a legal status for stateless people that had not previously existed.

The Four Main Commissions