A twelve-man United Nations sub-commission for the prevention of discrimination and the protection of minorities will begin its third session tomorrow in an effort to embody minority rights into international law. A major task on the program of the sub-commission is to work out provisions for inclusion in a draft international convention on human rights which is scheduled to be drawn in March by the Human Rights Commission.
The sub-commission received a clear mandate from the 1948 General Assembly session to take “effective measures for the protection of racial, national, religious and linguistic minorities.” It is expected to do this through an educational program on a world-wide scale and through implementation of minority rights already enunciated in the universal declaration.
In addition the U.N. Secretariat has suggested that the sub-commission expand its activities to include a geographical survey of existing minorities and surveys of protective constitutional, legislative and court decisions now on the books of member states. A study of agreements on minorities left over from the League of Nations is under way.
A major point on its program are three resolutions submitted by the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia and Denmark demending positive guarantees for racial, national and religious minorities of rights to their own schools and languages. In the opinion of the Secretariat such rights should be defined seperately in each individual case. The sub-commission also faces a demand for the inclusion of women’s rights as a minority issue.
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