Powers abstain on protection for women

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33521, 30 April 1974, Page 6

Powers abstain on protection for women

i 6V.Z.PA.-Reuter — Copyright.) NEW YORK, April 29. The main Western Powers abstained this week on a recommendation to the United Nations General Assembly, calling for special protection of civilian I women and children in I emergency and war. A draft resolution to this 1 effect was approved by the ; social committee of the lUnited Nations Economic and Social Council by 31 votes to 1 none.

The 12 nations that ■ abstained were Australia, ' Belgium, Canada, France. iWest Germany, Italy, Japan, i Mexico, the Netherlands, I Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States.

They argued that, as the question already was before a diplomatic conference on humanitarian law in Geneva, the council should not act vet.

The draft declaration proposed to the assembly would, among other things, proclaim as criminal, “all forms of repression and cruel and inhuman treatment of women and children, including imprisonment, torture, shooting, mass arrests, collective punishment, destruction of dwellings and forcible eviction committed by belligerents in the course of military I operations or in occupied ! territories.”

The assembly would also condemn attacks and bombings on civilian populations, as w’ell as the use of chemical and bacteriological weapons, and call for all States to abide fully by the obligations under the 1925 Geneva Protocol and the 1949 Geneva Conventions, as well as other treaties on respect for human rights in armed conflicts.