A formal request for a “relentless” United Nations investigation of “Government-instigated anti-Semitism in the Soviet Union” was filed here this weekend by the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, an organization which has consultative status before the Economic and Social Council, As a group with such status, the ICFTU has a voice, but not a vote, in matters dealing with economic and social affairs around the world.
In filing the request, backed by a 5,000-word memorandum, Irving Brown, ICFTU representative here, attacked the “ever-expanding program of Soviet anti-Semitism” which, he declared is “aided, abetted, encouraged and legalized by the Soviet Government,” He charged that the USSR “is engaged in a program against a large, defenseless minority of its citizenry which can only be characterized as cultural and spiritual genocide.”
Mr, Brown requested that the United Nations Social Commission order the investigation of official, Soviet anti-Semitism and stated that, if none of the 18 members of the Social Commission introduces a resolution calling for the probe.the ICFTU would take the matter directly to the Commission’s parent body–the Economic and Social Council, The United States is a member of the 18-nation body.
“Our submission,” he declared, “is one which should lead to an uncompromising, relentless investigation, the repressions by the Soviet Union of the rights, guaranteed by the UN Charter, of all men to human dignity and freedom.”
An item on this year’s General Assembly agenda, calling for a debate on “manifestations of racial prejudice and national and religious intolerance” is scheduled to come up for discussion this week before the Assembly’s Social, Cultural and Humanitarian Committee. Israel is expected to play a major role in that debate. Israel, however, is not a member of the Social Commission.
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.
