ment, so-called Basket III provision, insures that some of these human rights shall be preserved. We are signatory to the Helsinki agreement. We are, ourselves, culpable in some ways for not giving people adequate right to move around our country, or restricting unnecessarily in my opinion visitation to this country by those who disagree with us politically.

So I think we all ought to take a position in our country and among our friends and allies, among our potential adversaries that human rights is something on which we should bear a major responsibility for leadership. And I have made it clear to the Soviet Union and to others in the Eastern European Community that I am not trying to launch a unilateral criticism of them; that I am trying to set a standard in our own country and make my concerns expressed throughout the world and not singled out against any particular country.

The New York Times reported on March 2, 1977, that President Carter met with Soviet dissident Vladimir I. Bukovsky at the White House on March 1. Mr. Bukovsky was in Washington to meet with members of the U.S. Congress after having been released from a Soviet prison in December of 1976 and flown to the West in exchange for the freeing of the Chilean Communist Party leader Luis Corvalan. The New York Times reported that President Carter told Mr. Bukovsky that his Administration's commitment to human rights was “permanent" and that "I don't intend to be timid in my public statements and positions."

The New York Times, Mar. 2, 1977, p. 1.

On July 12, 1977, the U.S. Senate approved Senate Resolution 198 which expressed the sense of the Senate that U.S. representatives to the Belgrade Conference should indicate to the Soviet Union and other countries the official concern of the United States over the treatment of Anatoly Shcharansky, Yuri Orlov, and others who sought to monitor compliance with the Helsinki Accords. The resolution was introduced by Senator Edward W. Brooke and cosponsored by Senators Clifford P. Case and Hubert H. Humphrey. Senator Case introduced into the Congressional Record the Report of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations on this resolution, which called attention to section 3 of article I of the U.N. Charter and the detention of Los Angeles Times correspondent Robert Toth. The resolution and Committee Report, entitled "Committee Comments", follow:

A resolution (S. Res. 198) relating to human rights and the Belgrade Conference.

Whereas the human rights of individuals is a fundamental concern of the United States; and

Whereas the Belgrade Conference provides the United States an opportunity to express its concern on human rights; and

Whereas basic human rights of Anatoly Shcharansky and Yuri Orlov have not been respected by the Soviet Union; and

Whereas they have courageously sought to promote respect for human rights by their participation in the Moscow Group monitoring the compliance of the Soviet Union with the Helsinki Accords; and

Whereas the Soviet Union, without substantive evidence, has sought to intimidate both Anatoly Shcharansky and Robert C. Toth, Moscow correspondents for the Los Angeles Times, by alleging their collusion to violate Soviet laws.

Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that the United States representatives to the Helsinki Accords Review Conference should indicate to the Soviet Union and other states represented at the Conference the official concern of the United States over the treatment of Anatoly Shcharansky, Yuri Orlov, and others who sought to monitor compliance with the Helsinki Accords.

Committee Comments

Although the Foreign Relations Committee is reluctant to raise matters which may complicate Soviet-American relations, it feels obligated to take notice and to recommend that the Senate take notice of practices which are inconsistent with the human rights provisions of the Helsinki Final Act, and also those of the United Nations Charter. We note especially the first paragraph of the seventh of the principles adopted by the Helsinki signatories as guiding their mutual relations:

The participating States will respect human rights and fundamental freedoms, including the freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief, for all without distinction as to race, sex, language or religion.

We call attention as well to article I, section 3, of the United Nations Charter, which states one of the purposes of the U.N. to be the achievement of international cooperation: in promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion..

The significance of these provisions of international law is that there are matters of basic human rights within countries which are properly of concern to the international community as a whole. The principle of nonintervention in the internal affairs of states, although still basic to international law, can no longer be regarded as absolute and without exceptions. One exception, pertaining to international peace enforcement, is specified in article 2(7) of the U.N. Charter. Another applies to the area of basic human rights.

In recent months the committee has followed with dismay the treatment of those courageous Soviet citizens who have organized to monitor and encourage compliance with the Helsinki Accords. Prominent among these individuals have been Anatoly Scharansky, a computer specialist and spokesman for Soviet Jews, and Yuri Orlov, a physicist who was the founder of the Moscow branch of the Helsinki monitoring group. When Los Angeles Times correspondent Robert Toth was detained in Moscow in early June, he

was interrogated at length by the KGB on his contacts with Shcharansky. Under Professor Orlov's leadership, the Moscow monitoring group has issued 22 documents and 40 statements on a broad range of human rights problems.

Mr. Shcharansky was arrested last March 15 and subsequently charged with treasonous activities, specifically working for the American CIA. Professor Orlov had been arrested on February 10, 1977, but only on June 27 were the charges against him revealed to his wife. He is charged with anti-Soviet activity under a provision of the Soviet criminal code relating to the "dissemination of fabrications defaming the Soviet state." The offense is punishable by a maximum prison sentence of 3 years.

123 Cong. Rec. S 11683 (1977).

In his supporting statement, Senator Case specified some of those "others" who are not named in Res. 198.

I also would like to make it clear that Senate Resolution 198 is not concerned only with the two Soviet citizens specifically mentioned in it—Mr. Shcharansky and Professor Orlov.

Unfortunately, it is not possible in this one resolution to keep up with all the Soviet actions.

But it should be understood by all that the resolution stands for all those who are suffering for their efforts to monitor compliance with the Helsinki Accords.

Thus, this resolution stands for Alexander Ginzburg, who was a leading member of the Moscow group monitoring compliance with the Helsinki accords until he was arrested in February. According to reports received last week, he was charged with circulating anti-Soviet propaganda and faces a 7-year prison term.

The resolution stands for members of the Ukrainian group monitoring the Helsinki Accords, particularly Mikola Rudenko, who was sentenced to 7 years at hard labor, and Oleksa Tikhy, who was given a 10-year sentence. They both were also sentenced to 5 years exile. Their treatment is especially disturbing because they were on trial in a remote town in the Denetsk region. Although the two Ukrainians were arrested in February, it was not until June 30, the 6th day of their trial, that their friends and family learned of the charges"anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda."

According to information received by our Helsinki Commission, the two were in an obvious state of exhaustion when, after the trial was underway for 6 days, Rudenko's wife and Tikhy's aged mother were finally allowed to see them. Rudenko had been denied a lawyer and former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark had been refused a visa to travel to the Ukraine to help defend them.

The resolution also stands for two young Ukrainians, Mykola Matusevych and Mysolav Marynovych who have been held in a Kiev prison since April. According to information received from Major General Grigorenko, a founding member of the Orlov group, false rumors had been spread of their release to distract attention from their situation.

Experts who have followed the situation say there is more than usual reason for concern about the two men because they were arrested by the KGB and not the Procuracy, the government branch which normally prosecutes cases, as were all the other arrested members of the Helsinki monitoring group.

The resolution stands for the others who have been arrested but may not have received much publicity, such as members of the Georgian Helsinki watch group, Aleksandr Podrabinek, who was detained in April after seeking

to rally support for Alekzandr Voloschuk, a Baptist who was bound, gagged, and dragged from the Supreme Soviet building in March.

The resolution speaks also for those of us in the Senate who have shown many times, in the words of the resolution, that "human rights is a fundamental concern of the United States."

Id. S 11684.

Sec. 502 of the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, Fiscal Year 1978, P.L. 95-105, 91 Stat. 857, approved on Aug. 17, 1977, contains a congressional finding that the Belgrade Conference is an important forum to emphasize human rights and a congressional expression of concern for Anatoly Shcharansky. Sec. 502 appears below:

The Congress finds that the Belgrade Conference to review compliance with the Helsinki Accords provides the United States an important forum to press its case for greater respect for human rights. Furthermore, the Congress is convinced that the emphasis given human rights in general by the United States should be translated into concern for specific individuals. In this regard, the Congress is particularly concerned about the fate of Anatoly Shcharansky and urges the United States representatives to the Belgrade Conference to express the official concern of the United States over the Shcharansky case.

Uganda

On May 25, 1977, Senator Robert C. Byrd, Majority Leader of the Senate, introduced a resolution expressing the sense of the Senate with respect to recent deaths in Uganda. This Senate Resolution 175 was agreed to, and it reads as follows:

Whereas there has been a history of murders in Uganda by officials of the government of President Idi Amin;

Whereas the Uganda Government has condoned a series of violations of human rights of its citizens and residents;

Whereas the Anglican Archbishop, Janani Luwum, and two government officials were reported killed under suspicious circumstances February 16 after having been arrested by Uganda authorities; and Whereas such incidents have been of such frequency as to affront the sensibilities of the world; Now, therefore, be it

Resolved, That

(1) it is the sense of the Senate that the actions of the current regime in Uganda deserve condemnation by the world community, by the Organization of African Unity, and that the Senate urges those nations supplying lethal arms to Uganda to halt all such deliveries of weapons; and

(2) that the United States Ambassador to the United Nations should request that the situation be investigated by an appropriate agency of the United Nations.

123 Cong. Rec. S 8645 (daily ed., May 25, 1977).

During a news conference on Feb. 23, 1977, reported in 13 Weekly Comp. of Pres. Doc. 244 (Feb. 28, 1977), President Carter responded to a question concerning human rights abroad in part as follows:

In Uganda, the actions there have disgusted the entire civilized world . . But here is an instance where both Ambassador Andrew Young and I have expressed great concern about what is there. The British are now considering asking the United Nations to go into Uganda to assess the horrible murders that apparently are taking place in that country, the persecution of those who have aroused the ire of Mr. Amin.

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Genocide Convention

Right to Life

In a message dated May 23, 1977, President Carter urged the U.S. Senate to give its advice and consent to the ratification of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide as a demonstration of the U.S. commitment to the advancement and protection of human rights:

. . This Convention was initially drafted in the wake of the wanton acts committed by some of our enemies during the Second World War. With the strong support of the United States, the Convention was unanimously adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on December 9, 1948.

The Convention, which now has 83 parties, provides that genocide consists of acts intended to destroy a national, ethnic, racial or religious group as such. The parties to the Convention undertake to establish genocide as a criminal behavior under their own legal systems.

The Convention thus protects the most fundamental of all human rights the right to live-and it creates an essential limit on the actions governments may appropriately take with respect to the people they govern.

The right to life was initially proclaimed for this nation in the Declaration of Independence. The promise of the Declaration was to protect that right by instituting a new and democratic government in America. Today it is important that this nation assist the world community to protect the right to life internationally.

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13 Weekly Comp. of Pres. Doc. 802-803 (May 30, 1977).

In a hearing before the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations on May 24, 1977, Herbert J. Hansell, Legal Adviser of the Department of State, testified in support of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. He focused on such questions and criticisms concerning the Genocide Convention as whether the Convention is a proper subject of treatymaking; the impact of the Convention on free speech, state law, and the powers of Congress; the possible use of international tribunals to punish defendants; the provision dealing with extradition; and some proposed reservations. Portions or Mr. Hansell's statement concerning the Genocide Convention, which

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