House Committee Charges That U.S. Foreign Policy Ignores Human Rights Violations for Sake of Detente

United States foreign policy is insensitive to violations of human rights in other countries according to a report released here today by the Subcommittee on International Organizations and Movements of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Specifically, the report accused the State Department of ignoring repression in the Soviet Union for the sake of detente, sharply questioned the efficacy of the Nixon Administration’s policy of “quiet diplomacy” as a means of rectifying human rights violations, and criticized the U.S. Senate for refusing to ratify the United Nations convention against genocide.

The report, prepared by the subcommittee after a series of 15 hearings last year, recommend that the State Department “upgrade considerations given to human rights in determining Soviet-American relations” and called on the Senate to consent to ratification of the genocide pact. The report was supported by subcommittee chairman Rep. Donald M. Fraser (D.Minn.) and seven other members of the 11-member panel. Three other members, however, declined to accept all or part of the report.

The report stated in part: “The State Department too often has taken the position that human rights is a domestic matter and not a relevant factor in determining bilateral relations. When charges of serious violations of human rights do occur the most the Department is likely to do is make private inquiries and low-keyed appeals to the government concerned. It is rarely known whether these acts of ‘quiet diplomacy’ have desirable effects.”

‘QUIET DIPLOMACY’ NOT ENOUGH

The report continued, “The effectiveness of quiet diplomacy would obviously be enhanced were the government concerned to realize that other actions with more serious effects would take place if quiet diplomacy failed to bring results. Such actions could include public condemnation of the violations, raising the matter before an appropriate organ or agency of the United Nations, suspension of military assistance or sales and suspension of economic assistance.”

Concerning detente, the report observed: “Traditionally, the United States has not hesitated to criticize violations of human rights in the Soviet Union and other Communist states. Current U.S. policy, however, has made it clear that Soviet violations of human rights will not deter efforts to promote detente with the Soviet Union. Indicative of this policy is a cautious statement made by Secretary of State Kissinger after the expulsion of Nobel Laureate Alexander Solzhenitsyn from the Soviet Union: “The necessity for detente–does not reflect approbation of the Soviet domestic structure.”

The report stated further that “It is in the interest of national security to find areas of cooperation with the Soviet Union. But cooperation must not extend to the point of collaboration in maintaining a police state. U.S. policy therefore, must be ever mindful of the clear evidence that the Soviet government is intensifying efforts to perpetuate the closed society as official contacts with the West are widened. Soviet leaders are not insensitive to international pressures on human rights, as can be seen in the commutation of death sentences for the Leningrad hijackers and increased emigration of Soviet Jews for example.”

The report recommended: “While pursuing the objectives of detente, the United States should be forthright in denouncing Soviet violations of human rights and should raise the priority of the human rights factor particularly with regard to policy decisions not directly related to national security.” The report added that the Senate’s failure to ratify the Genocide Convention “means that we have yet to accept international legal responsibility for the most heinous of human rights violations. It Jeopardizes U.S. leadership and influence in the field of international human rights.”

The State Department admitted today that prodding by the House prompted it to establish new official positions with direct responsibility for human rights in its diplomatic relations with individual countries and international governmental organizations. The Office of the Legal Advisor, which is directly concerned with human rights as it affects foreign policy, and the Bureau of International Organizational Affairs have both created special units for this purpose. Department spokesman John King disclosed.