Further efforts to guarantee freedom of religious practice to all people, including the Jews of the Soviet Union, were made here today by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. Today’s session was devoted to debating other articles in the draft Convention which would prohibit restrictions against all religious practitioners and ban incitement to hatred against persons following any religion or belief.”
The Commission marked what has been called a breakthrough in adopting yesterday an article in the draft Convention on the elimination of religious intolerance, mentioning anti-Semitism specifically as one major prejudice to combat. That article read:
“States parties undertake to adopt immediate and effective measures, particularly in the fields of teaching, education, culture and information, with a view to combating prejudices, as for example, anti-Semitism and other manifestations which lead to religious intolerance and to discrimination on the ground of religion or belief, and to promoting and encouraging, in the interest of universal peace, understanding, tolerance, co-operation and friendship among nations, groups and individuals, irrespective of differences in religion or belief, in accordance with the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and this Convention.”
The article was adopted by a vote of 15 to none against, with six abstentions. The Communist members in the Commission, composed of the delegates of the USSR, Poland and the Ukraine, abstained on the final vote, although they had previously fought hard against inclusion of the word anti-Semitism.
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