U.S. Urges U.N. to Adopt Declaration on Religious Discrimination

The United States Government called on the United Nations today to adopt a declaration on the elimination of all forms of religious discrimination, but indicated that such an international instrument may not come up for General Assembly consideration before 1964.

The U.S.A., at the same time, implied endorsement of a Subcommission study made public a year ago establishing the right of any person to leave his own country or return thereto. Both points were interpreted by observers here as aimed at least in part against the Soviet Union’s denial of religious rights and the rights of emigration to Jews in the USSR. However, the Soviet Government was not mentioned by name.

The statements were made in a lengthy address on general human rights and social welfare aspects of the work of the Economic and Social Council by Mrs. Jane Warner Dick, U.S. representative on the UN Social Commission. She spoke in the General Assembly’s Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Committee. That Committee has on its agenda this year an item calling for a UN declaration on the elimination of religious discrimination, but has not yet reached that point for specific debate.

Pointing out that the U.S. delegation favored priority in this Committee for a declaration on racial discrimination, Mrs. Dick said: “We believe there should be no further delay on the elimination of religious intolerance. The right to worship in accordance with conscience is a basic and fundamental right. It should be accorded everyone, in every country, without question and without limitation.

Mrs. Dick noted that the Subcommission on the Prevention of Discrimination and the Protection of Minorities is expected to give priority to the drafting of a declaration on religious intolerance at its next session here in January. “The draft prepared by the Subcommission should, therefore, come to us next fall. The United States welcomes this arrangement, and favors placing the draft declaration on religious intolerance high on the 1964 agenda of this Committee,” she said.

Mrs. Dick referred to the study in respect to emigration and immigration issued by the same Subcommittee last winter. “This study,” she said, “clearly indicates the folly of imprisoning population and confining intellects behind political boundaries.” When that study was issued last winter, it was fought vigorously here by Soviet representatives who saw the document as a criticism of the USSR’s policy of denying emigration rights to Russian Jewry.