A committee of the United Nations Economic and Social Council resumed hearings today on the status of non-governmental organizations accredited to the Council. The organizations generally have the right to make their views heard by the Council and its agencies and commissions without having the right to vote. Some of the organizations have been forthright in their presentations to the UN agencies and have offered testimony critical of the internal policies of member states.
Observers here forecast a determined attempt by the Soviet Union, strongly supported by Libya and other Arab states, to use the hearings of the Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations for an attack on organizations which have been critical of Soviet policies with regard to the Jews in Russia. The Russians have accused the Jewish non-governmental organizations of conducting an anti-Soviet campaign and of falsely depicting the situation of the Jews in the Soviet Union. The Arab states would like to see all the Jewish organizations deprived of their status at the UN. A particular Soviet target is the International Commission of Jurists which accused the Soviet Union of anti-Semitism in connection with alleged economic crimes in Russia. The jurists body is non-Jewish.
Appearing today before the committee was Dr. William Korey, UN observer of the B’nai B’rith International Council, to answer questions about the Coordinating Board of Jewish Organizations (COJO). The board represents B’nai B’rith, the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the South African Jewish Board of Deputies before appropriate UN bodies. A number of Jewish organizations have received approval, subject to Economic and Social Council confirmation, to appear in a non-governmental capacity.
The Russians were described as challenging the concept that the non-governmental agencies had the right to criticize member states. As a result of Soviet pressure, the questionnaires which all accredited organizations have to complete asks them to answer whether in the past 10 years they have published criticism of any country in which the organization in question had no membership. None of the Jewish organizations has any membership in the Soviet Union.
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