The need of a genocide convention was urged today before the Legal Committee of the United Nations by Dr. Manfred Lachs, legal adviser of the Polish delegation, following a United States suggestion for referral of the question to the International Law Commission, if and when it is created.
The American proposal, made by Charles Faby, and agreed to by British representative Sir Hartley Shawcross, in essonce advocates postponement of the entire issue. Shaweross expressed doubt as to the utility of drawing up a genocide convention at the present time, arguing that the principles it would embody had been clearly expressed by the Nuremberg tribunal.
The World Council of Churches and the International Missionary Council have sent to the U.N. a statement urging international cooperation to outlaw all forms of genoside, and urging the General Assembly to take prompt action to adopt an effective convention.
Agreeing with Shawcross that no convention is necessary against mass extermination, since the civilized nations agree that it is an “odious and barbarous crime,” Dr. Lachs stressed the necessity for a convention to specify against “those forms of genocide which do not mean physical extermination.” He urged that the draft on genocide, which is now under discussion by the Legal Committee, provide for the outlawing of discrimination against racial, religious, national and other groups, and also of any propaganda of this nature leading to violence.
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