Efforts to secure Senate approval for United States ratification of the international genocide treaty have failed again, as Senators supporting the 28-year-old treaty agreed yesterday to postpone a debate on the issue, conceding they do not have enough votes to overcome the opposition.
The treaty, adopted by the United Nations in 1948, outlaws genocide, which it defines as acts “intended to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group” by killing or otherwise abusing its members.
The U.S. was a leading supporter of the treaty drafted in the aftermath of the Holocaust, but remains one of the few major countries still to ratify it. Being an international treaty, the President cannot sign it without a resolution of consent and approval from the Senate.
Although President Carter has gone on record as supporting U.S. ratification of the treaty, opponents have successfully lobbied against it. Conservatives, right-wing groups, and some constitutional and international law experts have opposed ratification, asserting that it could subject Americans, possibly even soldiers in combat, to extradition and trial in foreign countries, for alleged violations of the treaty.
Although its supporters generally concede it is mainly of symbolic value, they maintain it is morally incumbent on the U.S. to sign it. They said they would continue trying during the Senate August recess to line up the needed votes for Senate approval.
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.
