Justice Haim Cohn of Israel told the World Assembly for Human Rights here today that ethnic and religious minorities were suffering persecution in the Soviet Union and certain other Eastern European countries. He urged the Assembly, a group of experts in the field of human rights participating in their individual capacities rather than as representatives of governments or organizations, to seek action to safeguard the rights of ethnic groups. The Israeli Supreme Court justice stressed the need to find means of enforcing respect for human rights.
Sidney Liskofsky of the American Jewish Committee supported the position taken by Justice Cohn and urged the assembly to work for adoption by the United Nations of the pending convention on the elimination of all forms of religious intolerance in as close to its present form as possible.
Dr. William Korey, director of the United Nations office of B’nai B’rith, raised before the assembly the threat to the Sub-commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities of loss of autonomy under pending proposals to modify the form of the body of experts. He proposed that the assembly call upon the forthcoming human rights conference in Teheran to protect the integrity, autonomy and independence of this agency.
Rev. M. L. Perlzweig of the World Jewish Congress presented a detailed proposal for a system under which individuals could submit petitions to the United Nations. Recognized non-governmental organizations would be authorized to present complaints and petitions to a committee of jurists who would seek satisfaction for the complaint or, failing that, pass the problem on to the appropriate UN agency.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
