GENOCIDE CONVENTION

WHEREAS, in many parts of the world today, despite the ugly examples of genocide we saw during World War Il and prior to the war, there is still evidence that many racial, ethnic, religious and national groups are being subjected to systematic terrors and pressures that aim at the destruction of these groups; and

WHEREAS, the United Nations Genocide Convention which was completed in  1948, largely through the United States' efforts, was unanimously adopted by the General Assembly on December 9, 1948; and

WHEREAS, this Convention was referred to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and has remained in committee for over a decade, and the Convention remains ineffective as to the United States and until it has been ratified by the United States; and

WHEREAS, the Convention embodies a basic principle upon which our nation is founded, namely that an attack on human rights and individual freedoms is an attack on the body politic itself that must be thwarted by every legitimate means; and

WHEREAS, the Genocide Convention has become the most widely ratified  United Nations agreement with the exception of the United Nations Charter itself, 64 nations having already adopted the Convention; and

WHEREAS, Genocide can be abolished only where there is effective international cooperation; and

WHEREAS, The American Federation of Teachers in convention assembled through its own support of legislation to eliminate discrimination, has set an example of citizen participation in the fight for human rights; and

WHEREAS, the American Federation of Teachers desires to be in the forefront of a nationwide effort to obtain Senate ratification of the Genocide Convention:

RESOLVED, that the American Federation of Teachers, in convention assembled, express in the strongest terms its sentiment that the Senate Foreign Relations Committee should act favorably and speedily on the report of its Subcommittee recommending ratification of the Genocide Convention; and

RESOLVED, that copies of this resolution be transmitted to the President of the United States and all members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee; and

RESOLVED, that all our state and local federations be urged to take similar action.