Senate Foreign Relations Committee Votes 10-4 to Endorse Genocide Convention

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted 10-4 today to endorse the United Nations’ Genocide Convention, a quarter-century-old document that has been affirmed by 75 countries but not the United States. Voting for the endorsement were Sen. J.W. Fulbright, Democrat of Arkansas, the committee chairman, and Sens. Clifford P. Case, New Jersey Republican; Frank Church, Idaho Democrat; Jacob K. Javits, New York Republican; Gale W. McGee, Wyoming Democrat; Edmund S. Muskie, Maine Democrat; Claiborne Pell. Rhode Island Democrat; Hugh Scott, Pennsylvania Republican; William B. Spong Jr., Virginia Democrat, and Stuart Symington, Missouri Democrat. Voting against were Sens. George D. Aiken, Vermont Republican; John Sherman Cooper, Kentucky Republican; James B. Pearson, Kansas Republican, and John J. Sparkman, Alabama Democrat. Two committee members were absent–Majority Leader Mike Mansfield, Montana Democrat and Karl E. Mundt, South Dakota Republican, who is ill. The committee said it would submit its report to the full Senate within two weeks, but that Senate action might be delayed pending legislation to enforce the treaty–calling for penalties against attempts to eradicate ethnic, national, racial or religious groups–within the U.S. The Foreign Relations Committee voted 10-2 on the proposal in the last Congress, but the Senate did not act on its recommendation.