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Human Rights Proposals Submitted to Paris Foreign Ministers’ Conference

April 28, 1946
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A number of proposals aimed at the elimination of discrimination on grounds of religion or national origin, and the guaranteeing of human rights and fundamental freedoms for all, to be included in the treaties with former enemy states, were today submitted by the American Jewish Committee to the State Department for presentation to the Paris meeting of foreign ministers, it was announced by Judge Joseph M. Proskauer, president of the committee.

The proposals call for the inclusion in the fundamental laws of Bulgaria, Hungary, Italy and Rumania of basic civil liberties guarantees. One of them specifies that the former enemy states “shall protect all citizens in their right to full equality before the law and equal treatment in all respects, including educational and economic opportunity, and shall guarantee them against discrimination in either public or private employment. In particular there shall be no discrimination in any respect on the ground of race, sex, language, or religion.”

Restitution of property to those deprived by persecution, their indemnification for losses and reinstatement in previous positions is called for in six specific proposals, which provide that unclaimed property taken from Jews be applied to the relief, rehabilitation and resettlement of Jewish victims of crimes against humanity.

The proposals specifically call for the inclusion of these provisions in the constitution and fundamental law of the former enemy states, and provide for their joint guarantee by all contracting parties, and for the granting to the United Nations of power to supervise their execution.

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