IO Files: US/A/3084
United States Delegation Position Paper
Refugees and Stateless Persons: Report of the Third Committee1
1. United States Position
The United States should vote in favor of the following three resolutions of the Third Committee:
Statute for Office of the High Commissioner.—This resolution provides for the election by the General Assembly, for a term of three years beginning January 1, 1951, of a High Commissioner; outlines the organization and functions of his office, to be located at Geneva; and defines the categories of refugees whom he shall protect and assist. If an amendment is introduced to provide that the Assembly may from time to time determine additional categories of refugees to come within the High Commissioner’s competence, the United States should support it.
Draft Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees.—This resolution provides that the Secretary General shall invite the Governments of all States, both Members and non-Members of the United Nations, to participate in a conference of plenipotentiaries for the purpose of completing and signing the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and the Protocol Relating to the Status of Stateless [Page 549] persons. It recommends that the participating Governments take into consideration the Draft Convention submitted by the Economic and Social Council and in particular the definition of the term “refugee” approved by the Assembly, these documents being annexed to the resolution. The United States should vote for an amendment submitted by France, the United Kingdom, and the United States, designed to exclude “internal refugees” such as Germans in Germany by stating that the Convention “shall not apply to a person who is recognized by the competent authorities of the country in which he has taken residence as having the rights and obligations which are attached to the possession of the nationality of that country”.
Problems of Assistance to Refugees.—This resolution appeals to all States to assist the International Refugee Organization in its efforts to re-settle the refugees remaining under its care and postpones until the Sixth Session of the Assembly the examination of the problem of assistance to refugees.
It will not be necessary for the United States to make a statement on this subject.
The United States should vote against plenary discussion of this report.
2. History in Committee
The Third Committee devoted considerable time to debating the definition of the term “refugee” submitted by the Economic and Social Council and ultimately agreed to adopt one definition for inclusion in the Convention and a broader definition, incorporating the one in the Convention, for inclusion in the Statute for the Office of the High Commissioner. The wording of the two definitions was perfected by an informal working party composed of Belgium, Canada, France, Israel, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Venezuela, under the chairmanship of Mr. Warren (U.S.). The two definitions are generally satisfactory to the United States, although one more effort needs to be made, through the proposed amendment to the resolution on the Draft Convention mentioned above, to limit the term “refugee” to exclude “internal refugees” in order to minimize the possible appeals to the High Commissioner for material assistance. A previous proposal, similar in substance but different in wording, was defeated in the Third Committee. However, the text of the proposed amendment was adopted by a substantial vote for inclusion in the definition of the term “refugee” contained in the Statute for the Office of the High Commissioner. In consequence, it is not expected that there will be any objection to introducing the same language into the definition of the term “refugee” in the Draft Convention.
The resolution on the Draft Convention, apart from the definition of the term “refugee”, was introduced by the United Kingdom and [Page 550] adopted by a vote of 26–7–12, the United States voting in the affirmative.
The resolution on the Office of the High Commissioner was based on a text submitted by the Economic and Social Council, the principal portion being the definition of the term “refugee” referred to above. The final drafting of the Statute was undertaken by a Subcommittee composed of Canada, France, Israel, Lebanon, Palestine, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Venezuela, under the chairmanship of Mr. Lesage (Canada). The resolution as a whole was adopted by a vote of 26–5–12. Canada, Egypt, France. Israel, and the United States voted in the affirmative; the Soviet bloc, in the negative; and Belgium, India, Iraq, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and Yugoslavia abstained.
The resolution on IRO assistance to refugees was introduced by France, the United Kingdom, and the United States, and was adopted without debate or amendment by a vote of 32–5–6.
3. Possible Developments in Plenary
It is not likely that this report will provoke any controversy in the plenary meeting.2
- For the Committee’s Report, see GA (V), Annexes, agenda item 32, pp. 26 ff.↩
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On December 14 the General Assembly adopted the three resolutions described herein (Resolutions 428 (V), 429 (V), and 430 (V)); the second resolution incorporated in its annex the amendment providing for the exclusion of internal refugees from the projected convention on the status of refugees, as proposed by France, the United Kingdom and the United States. For the proceedings, see United Nations, Official Records of the General Assembly, Fifth Session, Plenary Meetings, vol. i, pp. 669 ff. For the texts of the resolutions, see United Nations, Official Records of the General Assembly, Fifth Session, Resolutions, pp. 46–49.
At the same meeting, the General Assembly rebuffed a strong United States effort to elect Mr. J. Donald Kingsley of the United States as the new High Commissioner for Refugees; and selected Mr. G. J. van Heuven Goedhart of the Netherlands. Mr. Kingsley was at that time the Director General of the IRO. See the useful note by the Secretary-General in GA (V), Annexes, agenda item 32, p. 33.
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