The principle that Jews and others wishing to leave the Soviet Union and other countries behind the Iron Curtain should be permitted to do so was confirmed here today in a study conducted by a United Nations body and submitted to the United Nations Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities which opened its session this morning.
One of the main topics to be discussed at the session will be discrimination in regard to the right of every person to leave any country and to return to his own country. Other items to be taken up at the session include requests of the General Assembly, approved at its last session, for the preparation of draft declarations and international conventions on the elimination of all forms of racial discrimination and religious intolerance. The Assembly asked that these drafts be submitted, at the latest, to its 20th session in 1965.
The study submitted today to the Sub-Commission by Jose D. Ingles, Philippine delegate to the United Nations and special rapporteur on the subject, points out that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights proclaims that “everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.” It points out that while tourism and widespread international travel are being prompted, it is equally true that greater numbers of persons are “effectively confined” behind their national boundaries today than in previous periods of history.
U.N. SECRETARY GENERAL REPORTS ON PROTECTION OF MINORITIES
In addition to recommending that every national of a country is entitled to leave his country temporarily or permanently, the UN study also recommends that nationals wishing to emigrate permanently from their country are entitled to sell their property and to take the proceeds, as well as personal effects, with them.
Another report submitted to the Sub-Commission is a memorandum by the Secretary-General listing and classifying special protective measures of an international character for ethnic, religious or linguistic groups in accordance with a resolution adopted by the Sub-Commission at its last session. The Secretary General will also present a confidential list and a non-confidential list of communications relating to the prevention of discrimination and the protection of minorities.
A memorandum will be presented by the Secretary General summarizing recent United Nations activities in dealing with the problems of discrimination in religious rights and practices, discrimination in political rights, and manifestations of racial prejudice and national and religious intolerance.
The Sub-Commission will also have before it a memorandum prepared by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, summarizing its recent activities in the field of race relations and in combating discrimination in education; and a memorandum summarizing recent International Labor Organization activities to combat discrimination in employment and occupation. A report on the session will be submitted to the Commission on Human Rights, the Sub-Commission’s parent body.
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