A U.N. Subcommission for the Protection of minorities today wound up a two-week session which laid a broad foundation for the intervention of the world organization on behalf of groups victimized by discrimination.
The Subcommission opened the way for full participation of major civic bodies in its work when it adopted a resolution inviting non-governmental organizations affiliated with the U.N to supply the group with facts, figures, opinions and allegations of discrimination practices. It gave the broadest possible definition to minorities, including those of “race, color, sex, language, religion.
The Subcommission broke through specific taboos from the Human Rights Commission and the Economic and Social Council and made a number of decisive recommendations designed to mate the U.N an immediate and effective guardian of minorities in the field of human rights. Prominent among these recommendations is a request that the U.N. Secretariat take immediate steps to set up in each country “national coordinating committees” with the right to submit complaints to the Subcommission.
Another important recommendation provides for the setting up of machinery for receiving and acting upon petitions alleging violations of minority rights. This recommendation called on the Economic and Social Council to modify previous inadequate resolutions in this respect.
The Subcommssion proposed that its next meeting be held in January, so that its recommendations could be incorporated in the daft Covenant on Human Rights in time for adoption by the 1950 General Assembly.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
