103. Memorandum for the Record of a Meeting, Department of State, Washington, April 1, 19601
Washington, April 1,
1960
SUBJECT
- Draft Statute of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
PRESENT
- The Secretary
- ARA — Mr. Rubottom
- L — Mr. Hager
- H — Mr. Macomber
- IO — Mr. Henderson
- ARA — Amb. Dreier
After a lengthy discussion of the whole matter, the Secretary expressed the view that we should not approve the statute of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. He did not favor our securing the adoption of an article that would limit the application of Articles 11–f, 20, 22 and 23 to those states which specifically accepted, as proposed by ARA.2
He urged that we make clear we favored a commission which would exercise the general functions of promoting respect for human rights, such as set forth in Articles 11–a to e, but that we should draw the line at that point.
- Source: Department of State, Central Files, 371.707/4–160. Drafted by Dreier.↩
- A memorandum from Rubottom to Herter, March 29, reads as follows: “ARA believes that the best solution to this problem is for the United States to take the position that we will approve the statute if an article is included saying, in effect, that those articles of the statute under which specific cases of alleged violations would be considered shall be applicable only to those countries whose governments specifically accept them.” (Ibid., 371.707/2–1060)↩