Latin American Parliamentary Assembly Protests Soviet Policy on Jews

The Constituent Assembly of the Latin American Parliament unanimously adopted a resolution here today protesting the Soviet Union’s “practice of discrimination against the Jewish community” in the USSR and called on the Government of the USSR “to eliminate” those practices, and to grant full religious and cultural rights to Jews. The Parliament is a non-governmental but highly influential organization composed of representatives from virtually every parliament in Latin America.

The resolution referred directly to a similar resolution condemning anti-Jewish discriminations in the USSR, adopted at Strasbourg, France, last May, by the Council of Europe. In the measure, the Parliament agreed with the Strasbourg assertion to the effect that “human rights are, by nature, of universal validity” and called upon all countries practicing discriminations of any kind “to eliminate them and recognize the rights of minorities to exercise” their religious and cultural rights “in their fullest extent.”

Prior to its consideration today by the Constituent Assembly, the resolution was approved yesterday by the Parliament’s political commission, under the presidency of Ulises Guimaraes of Brazil. The measure had been introduced in the commission by Senator Aquila Cornejo and Representatives Fernando Loen de Vivero, Andres Townsend Ezcurra and David Aguilar, all of Peru; Rep. Maximo Garrizo, chief of the Panamanian delegation; and Rep. Jorge Montero Castro, head of the Costa Rican delegation.