Speech #910172573

Many interested citizens and civic organizations are pressing for Senate ratification of these human rights documents which they believe. in essence. affirm the basic principles to which Americans are committed. However. it is hard to tell this commitment by the record of the United States on these conventions. The U.S. record is a poor one. Of a total of seven human rights documents submitted by the President to the Senate only three have been ratified to date. These are the Slavery Convention ratified in 1956. the Supplementary Slavery Convention ratified in December of 1967. and the Protocol in the Status of Refugees ratified in October of 1968. There still remain four human rights conventions submitted to the U.S. Senatethe Genocide Convention.