G. Human Rights

49. PROVISIONS OF A DRAFT COVENANT ON CIVIL AND POLITICAL RIGHTS, Agreed to in Committee III of the U.N. General Assembly, October 19-November 14, 1961 1

Article 192

1. Everyone shall have the right to hold opinions without interference.

1

2. Everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his choice.

3. The exercise of the rights provided for in the foregoing paragraph carries with it special duties and responsibilities. It may therefore be subject to certain restrictions, but these shall be such only as are provided by law and are necessary, (1) for respect of the rights or reputations of others, (2) for the protection of national security or of public order (ordre public), or of public health or morals.

Article 20

The right of peaceful assembly shall be recognized. No restrictions may be placed on the exercise of this right other than those imposed in conformity with the law and which are necessary in a democratic society in the interests of national security or public safety, public order (ordre public), the protection of public health or morals or the protection of the rights and freedoms of others.

Article 21

1. Everyone shall have the right to freedom of association with others, including the right to form and join trade unions for the protection of his interests. 2. No restrictions may be placed on the exercise of this right other than those prescribed by law and which are necessary in a democratic society in the interests of national security or public safety, public order (ordre public), the protection of public health or morals or the protection of the rights and freedoms of others. This article shall not prevent the imposition of lawful restrictions on members of the armed forces and of the police in their exercise of this right.

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3. Nothing in this article shall authorize States Parties to the International Labour Convention of 1948 on Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organize to take legislative measures which would prejudice, or to apply the law in such a manner as to prejudice, the guarantees provided for in that Convention.

'Yearbook of the United Nations, 1961, pp. 292–299. For the text of the preamble and first 14 arts. of the draft covenant approved in Committee III through the 14th session of the General Assembly, see American Foreign Policy: Current Documents, 1959, pp. 143–146. For the text of arts. 15–18, approved at the 15th session, see ibid., 1960, pp. 99-100.

The text of art. 19 was adopted in Committee III by a vote of 82 (including the U.S.) to 1, with 7 abstentions, taken Oct. 19, 1961.

* The text of art. 20 was adopted in Committee III by a vote of 67 (including the U.S.) to 0, taken Oct. 26, 1961.

The text of art. 21 was adopted in Committee III by a vote of 74 (including the U.S.) to 0, with 2 abstentions, taken Oct. 31, 1961.

* 68 UNTS 17. The United States has not ratified the convention.

Doc. 49

Article 22

1. The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.

2. The right of men and women of marriageable age to marry and to found a family shall be recognized.

3. No marriage shall be entered into without the free and full consent of the intending spouses.

4. States Parties to the Covenant shall take appropriate steps to ensure equality of rights and responsibilities of spouses as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution. In the case of dissolution, provision shall be made for the necessary protection of any children.

Article 237

Every citizen shall have the right and the opportunity, without any of the distinctions mentioned in article 2 of this Covenant and without unreasonable restrictions:

(a) To take part in the conduct of public affairs, directly or through freely chosen representatives;

(b) To vote and to be elected at genuine periodic elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret ballot, guaranteeing the free expression of the will of the electors;

(c) of access, on general terms of equality, to public service in his country.

All persons are equal before the law. The law shall prohibit any discrimination and guarantee to all persons equal and effective protection against discrimination on any ground such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.

Article 25°

In those States in which ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities exist, persons belonging to such minorities shall not be denied the right, in community with the other members of their group, to enjoy their own culture, to profess and practise their own religion, or to use their own language.

1. Any propaganda for war shall be prohibited by law.

2. Any advocacy of national, racial, or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence shall be prohibited by law.

[NOTE: Article 26 represented the last substantive portion of the draft covenant; work on general and final clauses was deferred to the 17th session of the General Assembly.]

The text of art. 22 was adopted in Committee III by a vote of 79 (including the U.S.) to 1, with 3 abstentions, taken Nov. 7, 1961.

The text of art. 23 was adopted in Committee III by a vote of 71 (including the U.S.) to 0, with 4 abstentions, taken Nov. 8, 1961.

8 The text of art. 24 was adopted in Committee III by a vote of 72 (including the U.S.) to 0, with 5 abstentions, taken Nov. 13, 1961.

9 The text of art. 25 was adopted in Committee III by a vote of 80 (including the U.S.) to 0, with 1 abstention, taken Nov. 14, 1961.

10 The text of art. 26 was adopted in Committee III by a vote of 52 to 19 (including the U.S.), with 12 abstentions, taken Oct. 25, 1961. U.S. opposition to the inclusion of this article rested on the possibility of its misuse to deprive rights guaranteed in art. 19.

50. PROVISIONS OF A DRAFT CONVENTION ON FREEDOM OF INFORMATION, Agreed to in Committee III of the U.N. General Assembly, December 6-12, 1961 11

12 Article 3

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Nothing in the present Convention may be interpreted as limiting or derogating from any of the rights and freedoms to which the present Convention refers which may be guaranteed under the laws of any Contracting State or any conventions to which it is a party.

Article 413

The Contracting States recognize that the right of reply is a corollary of freedom of information and may establish appropriate means for safeguarding that right.

51. THE UNITED STATES POSITION ON THE QUESTION OF A DEFINITION OF "THE RIGHT OF REPLY" AS A COROLLARY OF FREEDOM OF INFORMATION: Statement Made by the U.S. Representative (Van Heuven) in Committee III of the U.N. General Assembly, December 12, 1961 14

I should like to take just one minute to explain the vote of my delegation in connection with the consideration, by this Committee, of Article 4 of the Draft Convention on Freedom of Information.15

My delegation adheres very firmly to the belief that every person should be able to have an opportunity to exercise freely his right to freedom of speech. In our view, Mr. Chairman, it follows that everyone should be able to respond to anything which has been said about him, or concerning him. This is a fundamental human right, and we would support any text which would embody this right in the Draft Convention on Freedom of Information.

The text of Article 4 of the Draft Convention, in our view, did not do anything of the sort. It referred to a "right of reply". But it failed altogether to indicate the substance of this "right". Our own experience with the Convention on the International Right of Correction has not been such as to make us believe that there exists any

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"Yearbook of the United Nations, 1961, p. 307. For the text of the preamble and first article of the draft convention approved in Committee III at the 14th session of the General Assembly, see American Foreign Policy: Current Documents, 1959, pp. 146-147. For the text of art. 2, approved at the 15th session, see ibid., 1960, p. 104.

"The text of art. 3 was adopted in Committee III by a vote of 55 (including the U.S.) to 0, with 11 abstentions, taken Dec. 6, 1961.

13 The text of art. 4 was adopted in Committee III by a vote of 33 to 5, with 37 abstentions (including the U.S.), taken Dec. 12, 1961. "U.S.-U.N. press release 3884, Dec. 13, 1961.

15 Supra.

Text in U.N. doc. A/2361, pp. 22-24. The United States is not a party to the convention. The convention entered into force Aug. 24, 1962.

very clear idea as to the content and meaning of the phrase "right of reply" as it occurred in the draft text of Article 4.1

The text which this Committee has now adopted still does not wholly meet our preoccupations, because it fails to indicate the nature of the "right of reply", and makes no mention of the manner in which this right may be exercised. It provides that each contracting state shall safeguard the exercise of the right of reply by appropriate means. There is no guarantee that the exercise of this right must be accorded to all persons, and on equal basis. The text of the article as it has been adopted does not contain a firm guarantee against abuse.

For that reason, Mr. Chairman, my delegation has not been able to support this text.

H. Trusteeship, Self-Determination, and the Question of Colonialism

[NOTE: See also post, docs. 435, 439, 447–448, and 450–454.]

STEPS FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE DECLARATION ON THE GRANTING OF INDEPENDENCE TO COLONIAL COUNTRIES AND PEOPLES: Memorandum Transmitted by the Soviet Foreign Minister (Gromyko) to the President of the Sixteenth Session of the U.N. General Assembly (Slim), September 27, 1961 1

52. UNITED STATES VIEWS ON THE QUESTION OF COLONIALISM: Statement Made by the U.S. Representative (Bingham) Before the U.N. General Assembly, November 22, 1961 (Excerpts) 2

On 14 December a year ago, the General Assembly adopted a resolution in which it solemnly proclaimed "the necessity of bringing to an unconditional end colonialism in all its forms and manifestations". To that end, the Assembly called for:

Immediate steps to be taken, in Trust and Non-Self-Governing Territories or all other territories which have not yet attained independence, to transfer all powers to the peoples of those territories, without any conditions or reservations, in accordance with their freely expressed will and desire, without any distinc

17 The text of draft art. 4 originally read: "A Contracting State may establish a right of reply or a similar corrective remedy."

1U.N. doc. A/4889.

8

U.N. doc. A/PV. 1061, pp. 770-775.

U.N. General Assembly Res. 1514 (XV); text in American Foreign Policy: Current Documents, 1960, pp. 110-111.

tion as to race, creed or colour, in order to enable them to enjoy complete independence and freedom.

As I think all representatives know, my country has associated itself with the principles of that historic Declaration. We shall be happy if, by our participation in this and future debates, as well as by our actions, both within and outside the United Nations, we can help to advance its great purposes.

As we consider the problem of "colonialism"-a term which is given many different meanings in our debates-it is first of all important that we understand each other, and be clear in our own thinking. That is the first purpose of this debate: to clear our own, and other minds, of the prejudices, suspicions and half-truths which complicate and hinder our mutual search for progress.

Second, it is important that we should examine the problem of colonialism in its entirety. Since all of us view this and other problems in the light of our own experience, some of us have in the past tended to take a narrow, or partial, view of colonialism. Our efforts have resembled the blind men in the fable, each of whom attempted to understand and describe an elephant by touching a different part of the animal's anatomy.

In the United States, for example, it is often asked why Western Powers who have relinquished their former rule over nearly a billion men and women since 1945, are still criticized-even in some of the new nations themselves as arch-imperialists, while the Soviet Union, which, in the same period, has subverted or absorbed so many independent countries in Eastern Europe, or Communist China, which has for ten years been crushing the struggle for self-determination in Tibet, have of late been much more gently handled by these same critics.

As for the United States, we are not newcomers to the spirit of anticolonialism. Ours was the first nation in modern times to emerge from colonial domination into independence. The Declaration of Independence, which is my country's founding document, adopted on 4 July 1776, set forth these self-evident truths:

that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.

Our founders declared, and we still hold, that these truths are not the heritage of any particular race or nation, but of all humanity. It is not my people or other peoples alone who are created equal: it is "all men", and, in fact, the influence of that Declaration has reverberated around the world, and still reverberates today.

But we recall from our own experience that the United States did not cease to probe the full meaning of colonialism after it was born into freedom as the first great anti-colonial nation. Long after independence from Great Britain was won, and long after the wounds of our revolution were healed by a friendship with the mother country based on the firm foundation of co-equality, we continued--and