Final ratification of the International Convention on Genocide, which was adopted by the U.N. General Assembly in Paris in December, 1948, was signed here today in the presence of representatives of the four latest ratifying nations – France, Korea, Haiti and Costa Rica. This brought the total of ratifying countries to 22, two more than necessary to put the Convention into force. It will come into force 90 days from today.
In a statement to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency Professor Raphael Lemkin, who single-handedly led the campaign for adoption of the Convention, hailed the event as providing “for the first time in history” international law to protect small nations and religious and racial groups from extermination. “It will be a warning to the world,” he said, “especially in this century which is a genocidal century.”
Prof. Lemkin thanked Jewish organizations for the assistance they had given in the genocide campaign, and then emphasized that great help was still necessary to get ratification by the big states, especially the United States, to see that reservations to the Convention would not allow opponents of ratification to use ambiguity and uncertainty as an excuse for postponing or shelving ratification. He said the procedure of accepting reservation must be simple and non-ambiguous and called upon Jewish organizations and all those interested in the future of the Convention to follow closely the work of the U.N. Legal Committee.
(The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace this week-end charged that the American Bar Association had missused a grant from the foundation by using the monies to oppose ratification by the U.S. of the genocide Convention. This charge was yesterday denied by Cody Fowler, president of the A.B.A.)
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
