Foreign Relations of the United States, 1981–1988, Volume XLI, Global Issues II

69. Information Memorandum From the Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs (Newell) to Acting Secretary of State Dam¹

Washington, January 31, 1984

SUBJECT

• The 40th Annual Session of the UN Human Rights Commission

The 40th annual session of the UN Human Rights Commission will meet in Geneva February 6–March 16, 1984. The United States delegation will be headed by the United States Representative, Richard Schifter. A send-off meeting has been scheduled between the President and MR. Schifter on February 2, the day of his departure for Geneva.

Unlike the UN General Assembly, where the human rights agenda continues to be highly selective in its concentration upon only a few Latin American countries, the agenda of the Human Rights Commission has in recent years taken on a broader focus. The Commission will continue its consideration of the human rights situations in the Israeli-occupied territories, South Africa, Chile, El Salvador and Guatemala; it will also examine the human rights situations in Afghanistan, Kampuchea, Poland and Iran. Our delegation has set for itself two major priorities, (a) the adoption of another resolution on the human rights situation in Poland calling for the preparation of a report by a Special Rapporteur, and (b) the approval of a balanced, factual resolution on the human rights situation in El Salvador which avoids the political extremes which have characterized the resolutions adopted at the last two Commission sessions.

Other issues which the United States delegation intends to highlight are psychiatric abuse in the USSR, the situation of minorities in the USSR, religious intolerance, and enforced or involuntary disappearances. Finally, our delegation will try to negotiate with the African delegations the text of a resolution on apartheid in South Africa which we can support.²

1. Source: Department of State, Central Foreign Policy File, D840090–0664. Confidential. Drafted by Hewitt on January 30 and cleared in HA/MA and IO. A stamped notation, dated February 6, on the memorandum reads: “Mr. Dam has seen.” Shultz was in El Salvador to meet with Magana.
2. The minutes of an April 12 Human Rights Subcommittee meeting contain a concise summary of the events at the 40th UNHRC including a resolution on apartheid in South Africa. (Department of State, Assistant Secretary Subject Files—Human Rights Country Files, 1984, Lot 86D221, UNHRC—General 1984)