Criticism of recent actions and statements of the United States delegation to the United Nations, in connection with the U.N. Genocide Convention, was voiced today by a number of national and local Jewish organizations.
The criticism was contained in a joint statement of the American Jewish Congress, Jewish Labor Committee, Jewish War Veterans of the United States, Union of American Hebrew Congregations, Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, United Synagogue of America and 30 local Jewish community councils throughout the United States. The statement was released through the National Community Relations Advisory Council, coordinating body for the signatory organizations.
The U.S. stand on the Genocide Convention was termed “discouraging” in the statement. Pointing out that the Genocide Convention, which would make an international crime of acts “committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group as such,” was steered through the U.N. by the U.S. and has been ratified by over 40 nations, the Jewish organizations observed that it has been “frozen” in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
They urged President Eisenhower and Administration leaders to press for early ratification. “Only then will our representatives in the U.N. be able consistently to urge ratification of the Genocide Convention by others,” the statement concluded.
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