On Sept. 23, 1977, the U.S. Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe transmitted a report to the Committee on International Relations of the U.S. House of Representatives, which prepared the document as a Committee Print. See Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, Implementation of the Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe: Findings and Recommendations Two Years After Helsinki, 95th Cong., 1st Sess. Dante B. Fascell, Chairman of the Commission, described the report to Thomas P. O'Neill, Jr., Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, in a letter of submittal dated Aug. 1, 1977, in part as follows:

This report is the result of the Commission's continuing efforts to monitor international compliance with the provisions of the Helsinki Final Act. Commission activity in the preparation of the report included a study mission to 18 European nations in November 1976 and a staff trip on emigration and family reunification in February 1977 to Austria, Italy, and Israel. Between January and June 1977, the Commission held 14 public hearings with a total of 56 witnesses, including the Secretary of State. Staff surveys were administered to 1,035 recent Soviet emigrants, 88 major U.S. companies involved in East-West trade, and Western journalists in the U.S.S.R. and Eastern Europe. Commission staff has attended numerous national and international symposia on the Helsinki Final Act and related topics and worked closely with the Department of State in preparation of the Belgrade meeting. The Commission's report is a comprehensive evaluation of progress, or the lack of progress, in the implementation of Final Act provisions.

Id. VII.

Western Hemisphere

In a ceremony at the Pan American Union on June 1, 1977, President Carter signed on behalf of the United States the American Convention on Human Rights. Originally signed on November 22, 1969, by Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Venezuela at the Inter-American Specialized Conference on Human Rights held at San Jose, Costa Rica, the American Convention on Human Rights delineates the general civil and political obligations to all persons of states parties to the convention, as well as the rights of a civil, political, economic, social and cultural character of every human being.

Paragraph 1 of article I obliges states party to the Convention "to ensure to all persons subject to their jurisdiction the free and full exercise of those rights and freedoms [recognized in the Convention], without any discrimination for reasons of race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, economic status, birth, or any other social condition." Among the recognized rights are the right to life, humane treatment, personal liberty, fair trial, compensation, privacy, assembly, property, and freedom of conscience, religion, thought, and expression. To protect these rights, the Convention establishes an Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and an Inter-American Court of Human Rights.

The Convention, which is open to signature and ratification by or adherence of any member state of the Organization of American States, will enter into force as soon as 11 states have deposited their instruments of ratification or adherence. At the close of 1977, six countries had become parties to the Convention: Costa Rica (April 8, 1970), Colombia (July 31, 1973), Venezuela (August 9, 1977), Honduras (September 7, 1977), Haiti (September 27, 1977), and Ecuador (December 28, 1977).

Portions of President Carter's remarks at the signing ceremony read as follows:

[I]t's with a great deal of pleasure that I sign on behalf of the United States this Convention on Human Rights which will spell out in clear terms our own belief in the proper relationship between free human beings and governments chosen by them.

I believe that no one nation can shape the attitudes of the world, and that's why it's so important for us to join in with our friends and neighbors in the south to pursue as a unified group this noble commitment and endeavor. . .

13 Weekly Comp. of Pres. Doc. 838 (June 6, 1977). For the text of the Convenvention and related information, see Senate Exec. C, D, E and F, 95th Cong., 2d Sess. (Feb. 23, 1978).

On September 15, 1977, Ambassador Gale W. McGee, the U.S. Permanent Representative to the Organization of American States (OAS), testified before the Subcommittee on International Organizations of the Committee on International Relations of the House of Representatives on developments relating to human rights at the Seventh General Assembly in Grenada in June of 1977. Ambassador McGee described how the U.S. delegation sought to enhance the cause of human rights in the Americas through the passage of several resolutions at the Seventh General Assembly. Portions of his prepared remarks appear below:

It is a source of great satisfaction that the question of human rights dominated the General Assembly. At least 90 percent of the Assembly's energies and almost all of its time was spent on this sensitive issue, which on previous occasions has usually been avoided or handled with exaggerated caution. A great deal of the credit for bringing human rights to the forefront goes to the concerted efforts of President Carter and other Latin and Caribbean leaders dedicated to the defense of the most basic traditions of our hemisphere. I am proud to say that the U.S. delegation at Grenada worked closely with those of like-minded states to develop a strategy that would result in passage of several important resolutions aimed at strengthening the Inter-American Human Rights

Commission [IAHRC], advancing the ratification process of the San Jose Pact and, in general, enhancing the cause of human rights in the Americas.

We had certain goals at Grenada and we sought to achieve them by working together with a number of other delegations of OAS member states:

-We agreed that by standing together we could promote human rights in the hemisphere.

-By actively seeking and successfully obtaining the cooperation of the majority of the OAS member states, we frustrated efforts by a few to make it appear that the United States was isolated in its advocacy of human rights.

-We also agreed that we must avoid the sort of crippling criticism of the IAHRC that was intended to result in restructuring of the Commission in ways that would hamper its effectiveness.

-To counter this initiative by some states, we helped sponsor resolutions supporting and endorsing the conclusions of the reports of the IAHRC.

[T]he OAS General Assembly in Grenada proved beyond all doubt that the promotion of respect for human rights is a broadbased movement against gross abuse of human beings in which many governments and peoples have joined together. At Grenada, the leaders of the drive for frank discussion and action in defense of human rights formed a roll call of Latin American and Caribbean states with a deep commitment to freedom. I would like to pay particular credit to the important work of the Caribbean delegations who contributed so notably to the discussion and its results. The three strong resolutions this coalition of member states supported and helped pass went far toward demonstrating that the banner of human rights will draw many of the region's important leaders. Such frank debate and the forthright resolutions on human rights were unprecedented in the OAS and, indeed, in most international organizations to which we belong.

At the same time, Secretary Vance's opening statement, his bilateral discussions with every OAS foreign minister at the General Assembly and the corridor work of our delegation to the conference showed convincingly to the participants that human rights is a serious and enduring concern for the United States Government.

Terrorism and its relation to human rights was another subject of intense interest to the delegations at Grenada. We gave our strong support to the resolution sponsored by the Dominican Republic that sought to focus attention on the problem of international terrorism and its consequences. The Dominican Republic's resolution called for early ratification of the OAS Convention on preventing and punishing acts of terrorism against diplomatic and international organizations' personnel as well as for continuing study by the Permanent Council of other conventions on assault and kidnapping in the hemisphere.

A resolution sponsored by Argentina, combining the problems of terrorism and abuse of human rights and giving clear priority to

the suppression of terrorism, was defeated. Mexico's ambassador to the OAS, Don Rafael de la Colina, made the distinction between these two subjects with particular eloquence when he argued that abuse of human rights is a crime committed by the state against an individual subject to its laws while an act of terrorism is a lawless offense against the state committed by an individual. Both are crimes, but they must be dealt with differently. Suppression of terrorism cannot be an excuse for abuse of human rights. Venezuela's Foreign Minister Don Ramon Escovar Salom summed up the views of the pro-human rights delegations when he said that "political freedom is the only antidote to terrorism." Secretary Vance himself said at Grenada "the surest way to defeat terrorism is to promote justice in our societies-legal, economic and social justice."

Our strongest efforts, and those of the other seven delegations who joined in sponsoring it, were devoted to passage of Resolution 315, commending the work of the Inter-American Human Rights Commission, recommending that member states cooperate with it more fully and calling for greater resources to allow the Commission to perform its functions more effectively. The resolution concluded with the affirmation that "no circumstances can justify torture, summary conviction or prolonged detention without trial, contrary to law." . . . I believe Resolution 315 is an accurate measure of the real concern of a majority of countries represented at Grenada with the defense of human rights.

The Inter-American Human Rights Commission presented its Third Report on the Status of Human Rights in Chile to the VII General Assembly. The United States supported the resolution that was adopted by the General Assembly which was supportive of the Commission and pressed Chile to continue cooperating with and reporting to the Commission on the human rights situation there. The Commission's report made a series of recommendations designed to improve human rights in Chile.

I have every reason to believe, based on the very favorable results of the VII General Assembly of the OAS and the other developments I have referred to since then, that human rights in this hemisphere is of growing concern to a broad range of states, leaders and peoples and that, far from standing alone, the United States is a member of a distinguished fraternity in the Americas. Defense of citizens against torture, illegal detention, summary execution or disappearance by official connivance are abominations to the most deeply held values of all the American peoples. These crimes against human rights are the target of a growing wave of revulsion that is spreading throughout the Western Hemisphere. It is not and must not be seen to be an exclusive concern of the Government of the United States.

Statement of Ambassador Gale W. McGee before the Subcommittee on International Relations of the House of Representatives on Sept. 15, 1977.

257-179 O-79-14

The text of the resolution sponsored by the Dominican Republic at the Seventh Regular Session of the OAS General Assembly held in St. George's, Grenada, from June 14 through 22, 1977, and supported by the United States follows:

AG/RES. 316 (VII-0/77)

FOLLOW-UP OF RESOLUTION AG/RES. 24 (III-E/71) WITH REGARD TO THE STUDY OF MATTERS PERTAINING TO TERRORISM; ASSAULTS AGAINST PERSONS, AND EXTORTION IN CONNECTION WITH THOSE CRIMES

(Resolution adopted at the fourth plenary session, held on June 22, 1977) WHEREAS:

On June 30, 1977, it will be seven years since Resolution AG/RES. 4 (I-E/70) was adopted by the first special session of the General Assembly, through which it resolved, among other things, the following:

a. To condemn strongly, as crimes against humanity, acts of terrorism and especially the kidnapping of persons and extortion in connection with that crime;

b. To declare that these acts constitute serious common crimes characterized by flagrant violation of the most elemental principles of the security of the individual and community as well as offenses against the freedom and dignity of the individual, the safeguarding of which should be a guiding criterion of every society;

In Resolution AG/RES. 24 (III-E/71), adopted on February 2, 1971, the third special session of the General Assembly resolved: "To instruct the Permanent Council to study the matters pertaining to progressive international cooperation in the prevention and punishment of acts of terrorism, especially kidnapping and other assaults against persons, as well as extortion in connection with those crimes, that are of international significance, as regards those aspects that have not yet been covered by the Convention approved at this third special session of the General Assembly, nor by other treaties";

That despite the studies undertaken thus far to find methods of preventing and punishing terrorism, the acts of terrorism that take place in the Americas touch our sensibilities and deserve the repudiation of the hemisphere, and Terrorism, in any of its manifestations, and whatever its origin, has consequently taken on large-scale dimensions, and its continuing repetition in all parts of the world in an increasingly tragic and dramatic way could lead to situations in which international peace might be endangered,

THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY,

RESOLVES:

1. To recommend to the Permanent Council that it continue the work with which it was charged by Resolution AG/RES. 24 (III-E/71) of the third special session of the General Assembly, to study certain aspects of terrorism, assaults against persons, and extortion in connection with those crimes that have not yet been covered by a convention or agreement between the countries that are members of the Organization of American States.

2. To recommend to those countries that have not yet signed or ratified the Convention to prevent and punish the acts of terrorism taking the form of crimes against persons and related extortion that are of international significance that they consider the desirability of expediting the procedure of sig nature, ratification, and deposit of their instruments of ratification of said Convention.

The Convention to Prevent and Punish the Acts of Terrorism Taking the Form of Crimes Against Persons and Related Extortion That are of International Significance was done on Feb. 2, 1971 (TIAS 8413; entered into force for the United States on Oct 20, 1976).

The text of Res. 315 appears below: