Rita E. Hauser, former US representative to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, predicted last night that the Senate, after 23 years of inaction, will ratify the UN Convention on the Elimination of Genocide this year. She said that a written bi-partisan appeal, calling for a Senate vote on the genocide treaty, would be presented to Democratic Majority Leader Mike Mansfield (D.Montana) “in the next few days.”
“I am confident that Sen. Mansfield will act on the appeal during the current session of Congress,” Mrs. Hauser told the annual New York Metropolitan Assembly of the Zionist Organization of America. Mrs. Hauser, who currently serves as vice-chairman of the Committee for the Reelection of the President, said that 53 Senators have signed the appeal, and that there are pledges of support from at least 10 others. She said that signers include Sen. J. William Fulbright, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Presidential aspirants Hubert Humphrey, George McGovern and Edmund Muskie.
Noting that there is no sound legal basis for their refusing to vote for ratification, she pointed out that 75 other nations, including Britain, France and the Soviet Union, have already approved the treaty. “Our long delay in even considering the matter of genocide has been an ongoing embarrassment to the United States as a leader in the development of international law,” Mrs. Hauser said. “Senate ratification will demonstrate that the United States has never contemplated active genocide in any shape or form, and that it never will.” Mrs. Hauser added that the administration has proposed enabling legislation which would define genocide as a federal crime, and that it would push for prompt enactment of this legislation once the treaty is ratified.
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.
