U. N. Commission Hears Jewish Views on Human Rights Covenant

Opposition on the part of major Jewish organizations to the idea that only a state can bring a complaint against another state if the latter violates the provisions of the covenant on human rights was expressed here today by Moses Moskowitz, representative of the Consultative Council of Jewish Organizations at the United Nations Economic and Social Commission. The Consultative Council is composed of the American Jewish Committee, Anglo-Jewish Association and Alliance Israelite Universelle.

Addressing the UN Commission on Human Rights, Mr. Moskowitz asked: “If the right of complaint is restricted to the state how can the international community act as protector of the covenanted rights. Suppose there is a conspiracy of silence among the states and none of them invokes the covenant even in the face of most grievous violations, is there any way in which the international community can step in and remind the states of their obligations.”

Mr. Moskowitz said the answer to the two questions was in the negative. He pointed out that human rights which could not be asserted were of little consequence. The representative of the Consultative Council supported the proposal for the creation of an office of United Nations attorney general or high commissioner for human rights. He said that such an office would mean that the international community could exercise its function as protector of the covenanted rights.

JEWISH CONGRESS URGES U.S. TO RATIFY HUMAN RIGHTS PACT

An appeal to the United States and the other great powers to fulfill their “moral obligations to mankind” by pressing for the completion of a binding international covenant on human rights during the present meeting of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights was made by Dr. Maurice L. Perlzweig, World Jewish Congress consultant to the U.N.’s Economic and Social Council.

Dr. Perlzweig, attributed the reasons for the failure to formulate a Covenant on Human Rights to present day international tensions, and to the fact that some governments, notably the United States, “have left no doubt that whatever the results of the discussion at this meeting of the Commission on Human Rights, they will refuse to sign and ratify the covenant.”

However, Dr. Perlzweig declared, the fact that the United States delegation is sitting in the commission and participating actively in its work, is a hopeful sign “since that action might be construed as an expression of continuing American interest in the Covenant and recognition of its importance.”

“The fact that the commission is sitting at all and continuing its work,” he added, “in spite of the negative attitude of important governments and the uncertainties and tensions of the international situation, is, in itself, ground for hope.”