U.N. Commission on Human Rights Starts Session Today; W.j.c. Submits Plea

A memorandum appealing for worldwide action to bring Nazi criminals to justice regardless of their present whereabouts, was presented by the World Jewish Congress to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights which begins its session here tomorrow.

The memorandum, circulated among the delegates, supports a Polish proposal to add an item to the agenda entitled “The Question of Punishment of War Criminals.” The Polish proposal would call upon all governments “to undertake necessary measures in order to prevent the termination of the legal prosecution” of crimes committed by war criminals, and “accede as soon as possible” to the Genocide Convention of 1948.

The WJC submission takes note of the action by European governments of different political and social ideologies to prevent war criminals from escaping trial under provisions of statutes of limitation, but points out that this problem has long ceased to be of exclusive European concern. Reasons for refusing extradition were either “the political nature of the deeds” or, more frequently, the existence of local statutes of limitation.

WJC leaders have been assured that a draft UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Religious Intolerance would, if ratified by the higher organs of the UN in its present form, fully meet the needs of Jews who are suffering discrimination in the exercise of their religious freedom in various parts of the world.

Reporting to the WJC American Section on the draft convention formulated by the UN Sub commission on the Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, Dr. Maurice L. Perlzweig, who participated in the meeting on behalf of the WJC, described the document as “without doubt the most important step taken in the United Nations to ensure genuine religious freedom in all its member states. This text will come up for review at the meeting of the Commission on Human Rights which opens here tomorrow.