Goldberg Appeals for Ratification by U.S. of Genocide Convention

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is expected to clear for full Senate action a bill providing for ratification by the United States of the Genocide Convention which was unanimously adopted by the United Nations in 1949. In the intervening 22 years, 75 nations have ratified the convention which declares genocide to be a crime under international law but the Senate has never approved it. In recent testimony before the committee, Arthur J. Goldberg, former U.S. Supreme Court Justice and former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, spoke in favor of ratification while Eherhard P. Deutsch, of New Orleans, representing the American Bar Association, opposed it on constitutional and other grounds. Goldberg, as chairman of the Ad Hoc Committee on the Human Rights and Genocide Treaties, urged the Senate to approve the convention and end “an unnecessary diplomatic embarrassment to the United States.” He said that it is “inconceivable that we should hesitate any longer in making an international commitment against mass murder.”

Goldberg said that while the American representative at the U.N. he was often asked to explain the failure of the United States to ratify the convention. “Frankly,” he told the Senators, “I never found a convincing answer. I doubt anyone can.” The constitutional and legal arguments against ratification, Goldberg said, are “lacking in substance.” Pointing out that there were no constitutional obstacles to ratification, he added: “The time has come to devote more of our energies and resources to the long-term task of constructing some kind of decent world order. Ratification of a convention outlawing the most blatant crime against humanity will not by itself provide the answer. But it is surely a good place to begin.” President Nixon had asked the last Congress to ratify the convention. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved the bill by a 10-2 vote, but it never reached the Senate floor for debate.