Mr. Speaker. building upon the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. the United Nations has since 1948 adopted several human rights conventions. legally binding on all members which ratify them. These include a convention relating to the status of refugees. in 1951. a convention on the political rights of women. in 1952. a convention relating to the status of stateless persons. in 1954. a supplementary convention on the abolition of slavery. the slave trade. and institutions and practices similar to slavery. in 1956. a convention on the nationality of married women. in 1957. a convention concerning the abolition of forced labor. in 1957. and a convention on consent to marriage. minimum age for marriage. and registration of marriages. in 1962. These conventions were designed to combat some of the most flagrant abuses of human rights by setting specific international standards that members ratifying the conventions would be required to comply with. and that even nonratifying members would feel a moral pressure to emulate. A major recent step in U.N. action on human rights was the adoption by the 1963 General Assembly of a Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.
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refugees