ICAO History: Delegate Passport 4th Assembly 1950

icao history delegate passport

Did you know that Egypt was a founding member of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)?

The ICAO Assembly met for the first time in Montreal from May 6 -27, 1947, and the ICAO Council held its first session from May 28 to July 1, 1947. Edward Warner was elected ICAO president. He held that post until he retired on April 18, 1957.

Meet Mister Osman Hamdi, who was an official delegate for the 4th assembly in Montreal in May/June 1950. He was given a special passport by the Egyptian government for this task. In 1951, Hamdi is listed as a ICAO council member. By December 1951 the ICAO had 57 member states.

P.S. Also, Thailand was a member then, Germany not yet, but only in 1955!

The travel document is in excellent shape and serves as an early testament to the achievements of ICAO.

The Special Passport

Osman Hamdi’s Red special passport was issued in Cairo on 18 May 1950 with the special passport number 1286. The language in the document is Egyptian and French, and was valid for the United States and Canada.

Page five of the documents shows a US visa given in Cairo on 22 May 1950, and he was admitted to enter the USA in New York. Interestingly, the stamp is from the US Department of Justice.

Page six shows a Canadian visa issued by the British embassy in Cairo on 22 May 1950. Page seven shows stamps from Egypt and Canada.

I am still astonished that ICAO has not a single sentence in the organization’s history about passports, for which they are responsible.

Tom Topol | Passport History Expert & Author.
Featured in media incl. CNN, BBC, Newsweek. Awarded by the U.S. Department of State.
"Want to go deeper? My book Let Pass or Die covers the full 400-year history"

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