Editorial Note
The Seventh Session of the Commission on Human Rights held 50 plenary meetings at Geneva, April 16–May 19, 1951. Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt was the United States Representative on the Commission. James Simsarian of the Office of United Nations Economic and Social Affairs (UNE) was Adviser to the United States Representative. Simsarian submitted five official weekly reports to the Department on the progress of the Commission’s work. Some are found in Office Lot File 55 D 429 (Files of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for United Nations Affairs, Durward V. Sandifer). An article by Simsarian, “Economic, Social, and Cultural Provisions in the Human Rights Covenant: revisions of the 1951 session of the Commission on Human Rights”, is printed in Department of State Bulletin, June 25, 1951, pages 1003 ff. This includes a complete text (73 articles) of the Draft International Covenant on Human Rights, as it stood after the work of the Seventh Session.
The official text of the Draft Covenant is found in United Nations, Official Records of the Economic and Social Council, Thirteenth Session (hereafter cited as ECOSOC (XIII)), Supplement No. 9, Commission on Human Rights Report of the Seventh Session (Doc E/CN.4/640), Annex I. Annexes II–X of the Report contain complete information on draft proposals, amended texts, statements, etc., or exact documentary references thereto.
Annex II of the Report contains an official statement of the United States on the Draft Covenant on Human Rights as prepared at the Seventh Session, as follows:
- “1. The United States wishes to call attention to the desirability of including in the Covenant on Human Rights an article on the right of everyone to own property.
- “2. The United States wishes to call attention to the express reservation it made in the Commission on Human Rights on 19 May 1951 with respect to the provisions on economic, social and cultural rights drafted in this session of the Commission. The United States feels that there should be a careful reconsideration of these provisions. This is not, however, to be interpreted as indicating any lessening of the interest or efforts of the United States for the achievement of economic, social and cultural rights through the United Nations or through the various specialized agencies in this field.
- “3. The United States participated in the work of this session of the Commission on Human Rights in attempting to carry out the mandate of the General Assembly to draft economic, social and cultural rights with a view to their inclusion in the Covenant. The United States did so, despite its initial view that such rights should not be included in the same Covenant with civil and political rights. Our experience in the present session of the Commission on Human Rights has been such that we are now of the view that the provisions in the Part of the Covenant dealing with economic, social and cultural rights—being loosely drafted and not being expressed in terms of legal rights and With different implementation and undertaking—should be dealt with in a separate legal instrument.”