The United Nations Subcommission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities tentatively adopted here today a principle proposed by Morris B. Abram, the United States representative on the 12-member group, guaranteeing the right of persons to leave their own countries in order to seek asylum elsewhere, free of political persecution.
In introducing his amendment to a series of principles dealing with the right of a national to leave his country, Mr. Abram made it clear that the concept was aimed at nationals of such countries as the Soviet Union and other lands behind the Iron Curtain.
The Subcommission, which will vote finally on a number of principles guaranteeing the right of a national to leave his country, accepted the suggestion by Mr. Abram to add this wording: “This includes the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution. This right may net be invoked in the case of prosecutions genuinely arising from non-political crimes or from acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.”
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