Main provisions.-The Convention consists of 19 articles. It establishes a specialized agency of the United Nations to deal on a consultative and advisory basis with technical matters having to do with (1) shipping engaged in international trade; (2) standards affecting maritime safety and navigation; (3) the removal of unnecessary governmental restrictions and discriminations affecting shipping engaged in international trade; (4) unfair restrictive practices by shipping concerns when found incapable of settlement through the normal process of international shipping business; (5) matters involving shipping referred to the organization by any organ or specialized agency of the United Nations; and (6) the exchange of shipping information among governments. 5. CONVENTION ON THE WORLD METEOROLOGICAL ORGANIZATION Background. One of the oldest international organizations with a continuous life is the International Meteorological Organization which had its unofficial beginnings in 1872. This organization which over the years has standardized world-wide meteorological services and operations and has promoted research in the field, has not been an intergovernmental organization in the sense of having been created by convention or having official government representatives serve as delegates to its meetings. Rather, it has functioned as an informal, nongovernmental, technical organization composed of the directors of some 88 meteorological services of sovereign states and territories. In 1947 the Twelfth Conference of Directors of the International Meteorological Organization met in Washington to draft a convention designed to reorganize the International Meteorological Organization into a world organization with the status of an intergovernmental body. The convention which resulted from this Conference was sent to the Senate for its advice and consent on January 13, 1949. Senate action.-Brief subcommittee hearings were held under the chairmanship of Senator Tydings and on April 19, 1949, the convention was reported to the Senate, where it was approved. Main provisions.-The organization follows in general the pattern of other technical organizations affiliated with the United Nations. The World Meteorological Conference, to be convened at intervals not exceeding 4 years, is the supreme body of the organization. Delegates to the Conference are to represent member states. The membership formula is unique. In order to preserve the organization's world-wide concept no distinction is made between the directors of meteorological services of states or of territories. However, only sovereign states can vote on amendments, relations with the UN, a new convention, membership, and certain officers of the WMO. The office of the existing organization is now in Switzerland but no decision has been made concerning permanent headquarters. The organization is to carry on the same type of activities as its predecessor, the International Meteorological Organization. Dates Transmitted to Senate, January 13, 1949. Public hearings in Senate, March 30, 1949. Reported to Senate, April 19, 1949____ Approved by Senate, April 20, 1949. Documents Senate Executive C, Eighty-first Con- Senate Executive Report 5, Eighty- 6. GENOCIDE CONVENTION Background. Genocide is a word coined to describe the practice of group destruction, such as the Roman killing of the people of Carthage, the Turkish massacres of the Armenians, and the Nazi murders of the Jews. The general revulsion against the destruction of minority groups both before and during the World War II resulted in the adoption of a resolution by the General Assembly of the United Nations on December 11, 1946. This resolution condemned genocide as a crime under international law and directed the preparation of a convention which would make the subject of the resolution conventional law as between contracting states. On December 9, 1948, that convention was perfected and sdopted by the General Assembly by a vote of 55 to 0. This instrument was submitted by the President to the Senate for approval during the Eighty-first Congress. Provisions. The convention is designed to prevent genocide as a crime against international law, and to punish those guilty of its perpetration whether in times of peace or in times of war (art. I). It is declared to consist of certain enumerated acts, which must be committed with the intent to destroy an entire national, ethnical, racial, or religious group. These acts are: killing of group members, causing them serious bodily or mental harm, inflicting on them conditions of life calculated to bring about the destruction of the group, imposing measures to prevent births, and the transferring of children from one group to another (art. II). Included among punishable offenses are: conspiracy, public incitement, attempt to commit and complicity in genocide (art. III). Rulers, public officials, and private individuals are punishable (art. IV). Accused persons are subject to trial at the place where the crime is committed, or by an international penal tribunal, if such a tribunal should be established and its jurisdiction accepted by the country concerned (art. VI). Member states must grant extradition of the accused fugitives in accordance with their laws and treaties, and genocide may not be construed as a political crime in order to evade extradition (art. VII). Contracting parties may call upon the United Nations and its bodies to prevent and suppress genocide (art. VIII). Countries accepting the convention promise to enact laws necessary to give if effect (art. V); and disputes relating to its application and interpretation are to be referred to the International Court of Justice (art. IX). Legislative action.-When the convention was first sent to the committee, it was recognized that there were several novel features involved which would require careful study. A subcommittee under the chairmanship of Senator McMahon was accordingly set up to hold hearings and report to the full committee. The subcommittee heard representatives of organizations with a combined membership of over 100,000,000 people, who testified in favor of ratification. On the other hand a substantial part of the American Bar Association, including the House of Delegates, presented persuasive arguments against ratification of the convention in its present form. In hopes of meeting these objections, the subcommittee, on May 23, 1950, reported the convention favorably to the full committee with four specific understandings and one declaration. Since these were given wide publicity as a result of a news conference, but do not otherwise appear in the published committee records, they are reproduced here: (1) that article IX shall be understood in the traditional sense of responsibility to another state for injuries sustained by nationals of the complaining state in violation of principles of international law, and shall not be understood as meaning that a state can be held liable in damages for injuries inflicted by it on its own nationals. (2) that the United States Government understands and construes the crime of genocide, which it undertakes to punish in accordance with this convention, to mean the commission of any of the acts enumerated in article II of the convention, with the intent to destroy an entire national, ethnical, racial, or religious group within the territory of the United States, in such manner as to affect a substantial portion of the group concerned; (3) that the United States Government understands and construes the words "mental harm" appearing in article II of this convention to mean permanent physical injury to mental faculties. (4) that the United States Government understands and construes the words "complicity in genocide" appearing in article II of this convention to mean participation before and after the fact and aiding and abetting in the commission of the crime of genocide. DECLARATION In giving its advice and consent to the ratification of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, the Senate of the United States of America does so considering this to be an exercise of the authority of the Federal Government to define and punish offenses against the law of nations, expressly conferred by article I, section 8, clause 10, of the United States Constitution, and, consequently, the traditional jurisdiction of the several States of the Union with regard to crime is in no way abridged. The issues raised by the Genocide Convention were discussed in several meetings of the full committee. Since misgivings continued about certain aspects of the convention, the understandings were redrafted as reservations and were still under discussion at the time Congress recessed. 7. INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION FOR THE SAFETY OF LIFE AT SEA Background. After the sinking of the steamship Titantic on April 14, 1912, the United States Congress proposed an international maritime safety conference which was held in London and which drafted a Convention on Safety of Life at Sea. The First World War prevented the 1914 convention from coming into force, although the United States did enact nationally most of its lifesaving provisions. The convention of 1929, ultimately accepted by 43 nations, was ratified by the United States Senate in 1936. To take advantage of the advances made in nautical sciences, interested governments agreed in 1943 to call an international conference as soon as possible after the termination of hostilities. The International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea is the result of this conference held in 1948. Provisions. This convention replaces the Safety of Life at Sea Convention of 1929 and sets forth uniform principles and rules to be observed by adherents for the promotion of maritime safety. The 15 articles relate to such matters as the ships to be covered by the convention, the interchange of information, force majeure, emergency circumstances, amendments, and the relationship of the convention to the Intergovernmental Maritime Consultative Organization. Six chapters of technical regulations are an integral part of the convention and deal with, among other things, inspections, certificates, construction, electrical installations, fire detection and protection, lifesaving appliances, radiotelegraphy and radiotelephony, safety of navigation, and the carriage of dangerous goods. Senate action. This convention was considered by a subcommittee of which Senator Tydings was chairman. A public hearing was held on March 30, 1949, and the convention was favorably reported to the Senate. Background. The rapid development of aviation in the 1930's, the ease and speed with which aircraft could be moved from one jurisdiction to another, and the diversity of national laws dealing with property rights in aircraft, led to demands that an international convention be concluded dealing with the subject of rights in aircraft as well as with other subjects related to the peculiar problems developing as the result of the growth of this new means of international travel. As early as 1931 an organization of private air-law experts drafted two conventions dealing with property rights in aircraft and aeronautic registration. Neither of these conventions was adopted, but early in 1945 the United States took the initiative in urging fresh consideration of the substance of those conventions. Under the auspices of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and In its predecessors, a new convention was prepared and studied. 1948, the second assembly of ICAO adopted the draft convention which was sent to the Senate for its advice and consent early in 1949: Senate action.-A subcommittee of the Foreign Relations Committee, under the chairmanship of Senator Pepper, held hearings on the convention and reported it favorably to the full committee which in turn recommended Senate ratification. During the hearings and during floor consideration of the convention no opposition was voiced. In fact, the records of the committee showed widespread and strong support for the convention. Main provisions.-The basic obligation in the convention is that rights in aircraft and aircraft parts shall be recognized by the contracting parties if the rights have been recorded in accordance with the law of the state in which the aircraft is registered. The recordings cover the interests of mortgagees, satisfaction of claims against aircraft, transfers, and related matters. There are also provisions in the convention on salvage, immigration, customs, and air navigation. 9. TELEGRAPH REGULATIONS-ANNEX TO INTERNATIONAL TELECOMMUNICATIONS CONVENTION Background.-When the Senate gave its advice and consent in the Eightieth Congress to the ratification of the International Telecommunications Convention which created the International Telecommunications Union, the position of the United States Government had been reserved by the Executive so that the Telegraph Regulations, which were then still to be negotiated, would not be binding on the United States without formal acceptance by the United States. During the summer of 1949, the Paris Telegraph and Telephone Conference met and drafted the Telegraph Regulations which were submitted to the Senate on April 10, 1950. Senate action.-The United States delegation to the Paris Conference had a number of advisers from private operating companies in the United States. Partly as the result of the suggestions made by these advisers and by interested Government agencies, the Telegraph Regulations were submitted to the Senate with the request that a number of formal reservations be taken to the regulations. These reservations, which related for the most part to conditions in the United States resulting from private telegraph operations, were adopted by the committee after testimony before a subcommittee under the chairmanship of Senator Green of Rhode Island. The Senate gave its advice and consent to ratification of the regulations on August 9, 1950. Provisions. The regulations apply only to telegraphic communications. They cover technical operating matters such as the hours when offices will be open, the identification of sender or addressee, the 74029-50- 5 |