U.N. Genocide Pact Signed by 20 Countries; Human Rights Declaration Adopted

Twenty countries yesterday signed the genocide convention adopted last week by the United Nations outlawing the mass extermination of religious and racial groups, it was reported here today from Paris. Twenty signatures were needed for the convention to acquire binding legal force. The last requirement to be fulfilled is ratification by the legislative bodies of the 20 countries whose delegates signed the document.

Ernest A. Gross, who signed for the United States, declared the convention “responds to the unanimous request of members of the United Nations that suitable methods of international cooperation be organized to prevent recurrence of acts of barbarism, which are still fresh in our minds. The Government of the United States considers this an event of great importance in the development of international law and cooperation among states.”

The other signatory states were Australia, France, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Ethiopia, Haiti, Liberia, Norway, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, the Philippines, the United States, Uruguay and Yugoslavia.

The General Assembly also approved over the week and a universal “declaration of human rights” — the first such international document in history. The document was approved by a vote of 48 to zero with eight abstentions.

The declaration, designed to affirm that every human being in the world, regardless of race, creed, religion or sex, is entitled to a square deal, is the first step in the U.N. plan in which the next stage is to be an international agreement for the implementation of the declaration.

A number of Russian amendments which sought to link the declaration to the Marxist conception of a state or of society was defeated before the final vote was taken.

AMERICAN JEWISH COMMITTEE HAILS U.N.’S ADOPTION OF HUMAN RIGHTS CODE

Adoption by the U.N. General Assembly of the Human Rights declaration was hailed today as a “step of incalculable historic significance” which “ushers in an era of international relations in which the welfare of man supercedes all other considerations — an era of law and justice in human affairs,” in a statement issued by former Judge Joseph M. Proskauer, president of the American Jewish Committee, and Jacob Blaustein, executive committee chairman.

“The Human Rights Declaration places the moral weight of the United Nations squarely behind the rights and freedoms of each individual throughout the world,” the statement said. “We hopefully look forward to the early adoption of a convention on human rights to implement the declaration.” Judge Proskauer and Mr. Blaustein represented the Committee at the 1945 San Francisco Conference of the United Nations, where they played an important part in obtaining inclusion of human rights provisions in the U.N. Charter.