Great satisfaction was expressed today by leaders of all Jewish groups at the fact that the United States, Britain, Russia and China agreed during the week-end to jointly submit to the United Nations Conference on International Organization, amendments providing for “promotion and encouragement of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms for all, without distinction as to racs, language, religion or sex.
These amendments are not exactly the international bill of rights requested in the memorandums submitted by Jewish bodies. However, they are considered a great achievement, especially since they stipulate that the General Assembly “should initiate studies and make recommendations” aimed at assisting in the realization of human rights and basic freedoms for all, irrespective of race, religion or language.
They also provide that the Economic and Social Council which will be established as a result of the conference should facilitate solutions of problems conterning the promotion of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms “for all without distinction as to race, language, religion or sex.”
The Economic and Social Council is instructed in the amendments to set up Commission for the Promotion of Human Rights, thus comnlying with the request of Jewish and other civic groups which submitted memorandums on this subject. The announcement that the four sponsoring governments had agreed to present these amendments as their joint proposals was made by Secretary of State Stettinius, who emphasized that to the original purposes of the world organization have now been added the principles of equal rights and the promotion of human rights and fundamental freedoms for all.
The American Jewish Committee yesterday submitted a memorandum to the Vecio, under the signature of Judge Joseph M. Proskauer and Jacob Blaustein, asking, in addition to the creation of a Commission on Human Rights, the establishment of a Commission on State lessness and a Commission on Migration by amending the Dumbarton Caks proposals.
The memorandum urges that both commissions be part of the Economic and Social Council. The function of the Commission on State lessness would be to act as the international authority protecting the rights, and concerned with the welfare, of all stateless persons, and to provide the necessary machinery for identity documents which would be recognized by all nations.
The functions of the migration body would be to prepare and work for an international convention on migration and to establish technical bodies to explore migration possibilities, and to coordinate the work of other official international organizations already dealing with this subject.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
