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1918Immediately after WWI, families tried to find and reunite with their missing loved ones, creating huge migratory flows of people who wanted to return home.
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1920YWCA leaders from all over the world, and other dignitaries convened in Champéry, Switserland, recognising the need for intercountry co-ordinated work to assist migrants. A Standing Migration Committee was appointed.
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1921YWCA established a London based International Migration Service Department to assist migrant women and children. Service bureaux were opened in Prague, Warsaw, Paris, Cherbourg, Le Havre, Antwerp, Athens, and Istanbul.
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1922 - 1923A report posed the question “how far should human suffering be taken into consideration in new migration laws?” recognising the need for a permanent agency on migration.
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1924The International Migration Service (IMS) was established as a separate international entity with headquarters in Geneva. The International Social Service (ISS) was mentioned as an alternative name and came into effect after WWII.
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1924IMS/ISS founding members were Czechoslovakia, France, Greece, Poland, Germany and USA. Beside HQs in Geneva, all initial IMS/ISS offices were in seaports across North America, Europe, and Japan.
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1926ISS participated in the first meeting in Geneva discussing the necessity to have a Convention on the Rights of the Child.
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1926ISS published the first report on children on the move covering the problems faced by children during their migration journey based on the study of 132 specific cross border cases handled by the first ISS members.
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1928 - 1935Additional ISS Members were founded to include Germany and Switserland. By now, ISS had assisted 20'000 cases worldwide.
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1945Post WWII, only four ISS Members and the Geneva HQ continued operations. A special effort focused on expanding the network to face increasing migration flows.
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1947ISS gained special consultative status with ECOSOC.
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1945 - 1955The network of ISS expanded to include new members and partners in Europe, Latin American, Asia and the Pacific.
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1955The individual cross border cases handled by ISS numbered more than 45’000 in 72 countries.
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1961ISS leaders represented ISS on UN Committees on Refugees, Human Rights and Status of Women. ISS gained consultative status with the Council of Europe.
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1963ISS prepared a report and contributed to the drafting of The Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption.
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197450th Anniversary of the founding of ISS. A symposium was held in Geneva on “Migration in the 70s”. By now there were 16 Members, more than 60 affiliated partners and 100'000 cases handled.
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19781978 was designed International Year of the Child, and to celebrate that occasion, ISS published a book “The effects of Migration on Families and Children”.
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1990ISS was now a network of 16 ISS Members and affiliated partners, present in more than 90 countries.
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1994The International Reference Centre for the rights of children deprived of their families (ISS/IRC), was established as a programme at the ISS General Secretariat.
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2000ISS celebrated its 75th anniversary with a leading theme: “Young People in Migration- in historical context”.
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2007“The activities of the International Social Service and their legal bases” was published by the ISS General Secretariat as a reference document governing ISS operations.
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2008ISS contributed to the drafting of Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children, submitted to the UN General Assembly. The Guidelines were formally endorsed by the UN General Assembly on 20 November 2009.
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2010ISS revised and adopted new statutes and by-laws introducing a modern day governance model with an elected governing board and professional committees.
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2014Together with the Hague Conference on Private International Law, ISS co-organised an international conference on child protection and family mediation, attended by more than 70 agencies and governments.
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2016ISS organised an international conference on Alternative Care in Geneva with 400 participants and over 30 leading experts in plenaries and three working languages.
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2016ISS introduced Children on the Move as one of its core activities.
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2017ISS published a manual on Children on the Move, and subsequently produced three Massive Open Online Courses for training of relief and social workers on non-accompanied moving minors’ issues.
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2019 - 2020ISS equipped itself with several policies and codes to safeguard children, frame staff and volunteers conduct, and tackle data protection, to consolidate accountability in its operations. ISS also revised its global casework manual.
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2021ISS launched an international appeal to support its conflict related social work activities in support of Ukrainian refugees.
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2022ISS revised its statutes in the first post COVID-19 in person meeting, hosted by ISS Serbia, and adopted a resolution making Search for Origins in intercountry adoption contexts a core activity of ISS.
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2023Today, ISS counts 35 members, 2 regional offices and many members to be, covering ISS activities in 120 countries.
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2024During the week of 7th. Of October 2024, in Geneva, ISS network will hold its International Council, an international conference as well as an exhibition covering 100 years of ISS history, and an anniversary dinner to mark its 100th anniversary.
100 years of child protection and family reunification
100 years of
Women explorers
It is in Geneva, Switzerland, that ISS was founded by a handful of women. Facing the challenges of post World War I migrations, these women explorers recognised the need for coordinated action between countries to ease the passage of those travelling to unfamiliar lands, and to reduce the numbers of migrants being refused entry to countries they had gone to. The idea of an international migration agency was born.
Their firm belief and commitment to assist and support migrant families led to the development of the ISS case by case tailored approach. For each situation, no matter how complex, a solution was sought to reunite and protect families and children. This is what has made the ISS model genuinely human – centered.
And tomorrow ?
For the future of ISS, women, along with fellow men, will continue to lead ISS. The use of artificial intelligence and other technologies will enhance ISS capacity and ability, allowing better timeliness and effectiveness in worldwide cross border service delivery.
100 years of
Restoring links
Family reunification and child protection.
For 100 years, ISS has been developing ecosystems allowing children and their families to be protected and reunited through time and across borders.
ISS has built a global network of members to address the needs of cross border social services through international and regional cooperation. It is the strength of this global network that has reunited children with their families across the world.
And tomorrow ?
ISS will continue to expand and consolidate its global outreach.
Standardised training and AI technology will bring improvements to current social work service delivery, leveraging the organisational long history of casework to eliminate language and cultural barriers as well as repetitive work, cut costs, free up time for caseworkers for them to invest in supporting beneficiaries.
ISS seeks to better quantify and qualify its social impact worldwide. Through the years, ISS has collected substantial data on the number of cases and beneficiaries of its interventions.
Introducing standard Key Performance Indicators across the network and using existing data on successes and challenges will enhance ISS capacity to measure its impact.
100 years of
Pioneer advocacy
Solidly anchored on national levels through its worldwide network and community of social workers, ISS has been at the forefront of a changing social panorama, tackling complex challenges and real-life situations around child protection, childrens’ rights, family reunification and mediation, and much more.
As a result, since 1924 and ever since, ISS has contributed to the development of international private and public law.
And tomorrow ?
Being a valued actor on the international socio-humanitarian scene, connected with a wide variety of partners, among which, international organisations, NGO’s, academic institutions and research institutes, ISS will continue to advocate and contribute to the development of policies in favor of children’s rights.
Research and publication capacity, in support of ISS advocacy will expand exponentially thanks to our knowledge and research platform which will include 10 decades of experience from tens of thousands ISS conducted cross-border cases. 200 linear meters of ISS archives will be digitalised and integrated into this database which will be an open multilingual source for knowledge .