A plea that the United Nations evolve an effective way of responding to petitions from victims of persecution has been voiced by the World Jewish Congress here. Speaking at the UN Commission on Human Rights meeting in New York, Dr. Maurice Perlzweig, representative of the WJC, said that in spite of years of discussion, and though it was common knowledge that large numbers of people in various parts of the world were subject to discrimination and persecution, the UN had not yet evolved an effective method of responding to such victims.
It was not a solution, Dr. Perlzweig declared, to ask the victims of persecution to wait until the adoption of a Covenant on Human Rights. Before such a covenant was completed by the General Assembly, years would elapse. Then the text would have to be adopted by a diplomatic conference, and even then it could not become effective before sufficient governments had ratified it. Multitudes of people would continue to suffer until this process was completed.
The WJC representative addressed a strong plea to the Commission to keep the issue on the agenda and to continue the search for a solution of “one of the gravest problems of our time.” In view of the fears expressed by some governments that UN action on human rights would invade their sovereignty, he urged that the problem be re-examined with a view to organizing the cooperation of those governments willing to receive and answer inquiries and complaints from the UN. He pointed out that at the last session a number of governments had publicly stated that they had no objection to the publication of complaints against them with their own replies.
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