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International Sanitary Conventions

Volume 411: debated on Thursday 7 June 1945

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asked the Minister of Health whether his Ministry were responsible for those sections of the International Sanitary Conventions that make vaccination and inoculation a condition of travel abroad; and whether he will arrange for the inclusion of a section giving objectors to these operations the right to travel without undergoing them and a section undertaking to compensate for illness resulting from such operations, or their relatives in the case of death resulting.

Responsibility for the provisions of the International Sanitary Conventions of 1926, 1938, and 1944, and the International Sanitary Conventions for Aerial Navigation, 1933 and 1944, rests upon the Governments, including His Majesty's Government, which concluded them. The Conventions do not compel travellers to be vaccinated or inoculated. A traveller who has not been vaccinated or inoculated may find, however, on entering the territory of a particular country that restrictions are imposed on him under regulations made by the Government of that country. No Government could be expected to disregard the danger which would be involved in the entry of unprotected persons without restrictions. The general object of the Conventions is to avoid unnecessary quaranitne restrictions by the agreement of limits to the degree of restriction which may be imposed in given circumstances; and they also include provisions designed to help the local health authorities of the countries of entry to determine, in respect of individual travellers, whether any, and if so what, restrictions are necessary. I see no reason, therefore, to seek any such modifications in the terms of the Conventions as the hon. Member proposes.