Sen. Jacob K. Javits, New York Republican, urged President Johnson last night to launch “a real Presidential drive” to bring about United States ratification of the United Nations pact against genocide.
The Senator spoke at a meeting marking the 125th anniversary of Congregation Rodeph Sholom. He told the meeting that “millions of Americans will feel that an historic achievement has been registered in this convention, based on the grim experience of the colossal holocaust which martyred six million Jews in World War II when it is made part of the world’s protection against a similar outbreak in humanity.”
He said he was convinced that the Senate would ratify the convention “if the Administration really gets behind it and I urge the President to give the signal.” He was critical of the fact that “almost a full score of years since the Genocide Convention was first referred to the Senate, this greatest deliberative body in the world has not only failed to ratify but we have not even had this or any of the other human rights conventions before the full body for action.”
The Senator discounted fears that the convention would “give supra-national authority over domestic crimes attributable to race” as “groundless and but an excuse for parochial opposition.” He said the United States has entered into conventions with other nations to prevent and punish criminal actions “without endangering our national sovereignty.” He said “there is no reason to fear that by ratification of the Genocide Convention we shall be inviting foreign powers to intervene in our own domestic affairs.”
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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.
