[Congressional Bills 103th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 253 Introduced in House (IH)]

103d CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. RES. 253

Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives on the urgency of 
  United States ratification of United Nations human-rights treaties.


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                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           September 21, 1993

 Mr. LaFalce submitted the following resolution; which was referred to 
                    the Committee on Foreign Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives on the urgency of 
  United States ratification of United Nations human-rights treaties.

Whereas human rights form the basis of the values and principles on which the 
        United States was founded;
Whereas the United States has derived its identity from the ideal of universal 
        human rights as delineated in the Declaration of Independence, the 
        Constitution and Bill of Rights;
Whereas the United States has specifically grounded the principles of its 
        foreign policy on the fundamental values of democracy and rights of the 
        person;
Whereas the United States has announced the pursuit of human rights in its 
        bilateral relations with all governments;
Whereas the United Nations World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna, June 14-
        25, 1993, reaffirmed the universality of human rights;
Whereas the United States Secretary of State at the United Nations World 
        Conference on Human Rights publicly committed the United States to move 
        promptly to obtain the consent of the Senate for the pending 
        ratification of the United Nations human-rights treaties;
Whereas the United States is the only Western democracy that has not ratified 
        four of the human-rights treaties and thereby is in the company of such 
        human-rights violators as China, Cuba, Iran, Myanmar, Pakistan, 
        Paraguay, Sudan, and Syria;
Whereas Presidents Nixon and Carter transmitted four of the treaties to the 
        Senate in 1973, 1978, and 1980 where they have languished, and one 
        treaty and two protocols have received no executive branch action;
Whereas ratification of these treaties may require implementing legislation that 
        would be addressed by the House of Representatives; and
Whereas it is the expected role of the United States to provide the moral and 
        ethical leadership in the pursuit of protecting and promoting global 
        human rights: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That it is the sense of the Congress that the United 
States ought to ratify expeditiously and without delay the following 
treaties and protocols:
            (1) International Convention on the Elimination of All 
        Forms of Racial Discrimination.
            (2) Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of 
        Discrimination Against Women.
            (3) American Convention on Human Rights.
            (4) International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural 
        Rights.
            (5) Convention on the Rights of the Child.
            (6) Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on 
        Civil and Political Rights.
            (7) Additional Protocol on Economic, Social and Cultural 
        Rights to the American Convention on Human Rights.

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