Eleanor Roosevelt's Speech before UN General Assembly 30th Plenary Session

12 February 1946 [London]

mrs. roosevelt (United States of America): I am extremely sorry that we have to take up your time to go again into a discussion which has been thoroughly covered for two weeks in our Committee.

We agreed in part, we compromised, and I am extremely sorry that I have to oppose the speakers who have already spoken this evening.⁷ I realize that we speak from different points of view, and I understand why to them this problem seems different from what it does to me.

I cannot recall that a political or a religious refugee has ever been sent out of my country since the Civil War.⁸ I do remember that at that time one of my own relatives, because he came to this country and built a ship that ran contraband to the South, was not included in the amnesty.⁹ But, otherwise, this has not been a question that has entered into my thinking.

Europe has had a succession of wars and changes in population, as well as changes in ownership of land. Therefore, it is natural that we approach the question from a different point of view; but we here in the United Nations are trying to develop ideas which will be broader in outlook, which will consider first the rights of man, which will consider what makes man more free: not Governments, but man.

I think we have to recall a little of what happened in the Committee. We can agree on certain things. After a good deal of discussion paragraph (c) (ii) was accepted. Our friends who opposed the acceptance of the report as a whole and wished their amendments to be included took some persuading before they agreed to paragraph (c) (ii), but they did agree and they also agreed to paragraph (d). Now paragraph (d), it seems to me, fully covers their third paragraph, though it does not say that quislings, traitors and war criminals who are still hiding themselves under the guise of refugees should be returned to their countries immediately.¹⁰

None of us disagrees that those who had actively taken part against their countries should be returned and punished, but there are differences. Some people fought against the enemies of their country, but are still unwilling to go back because they do not agree with the present government in their countries. That, I think, is something we have to take into consideration; so that I do not think those words should be included. I think that all that we really should say is said in paragraph (d) of the report, which reads:

"Considers that no action taken as a result of this resolution shall be of such a character as to interfere in any way with the surrender and punishment of war criminals, quislings and traitors in conformity with present or future international arrangements or agreements."

I think that covers all that we need to safeguard: the return of the people who should be returned.

Now, let us take the paragraphs that it is proposed to add to this report. The first one is that:

"No propaganda should be permitted in refugee and displaced persons camps against the interests of the Organization of the United Nations or its Members, nor propaganda against returning to their native countries."

The second one, which must be read with the first, says:

"The personnel of refugee and displaced persons camps should, first of all, be comprised of representatives of States concerned, whose citizens are the refugees."

Now I never heard in the Committee the argument that Germans had been found in positions of authority in some of the refugee and displaced persons camps. That is a new argument. Naturally, no German should be allowed to be in that position, but it is fairly easy to find an occasional German in a refugee or displaced persons camp. These camps are, after all, places of refuge for people of many nationalities. They would not be there if they were ready to go back to their countries of origin. Therefore, I think it is fair to suppose that they are not in complete sympathy with the governments that are now in power in their countries of origin.

You must look at things from a wider point of view than the particular point of view that affects you as an individual at the moment. Suppose we turned this argument around, and suppose we said that any Spanish Republicans found in refugee camps should be sent back at once to their country of origin or that they should be put in camps where the personnel was of the present fascist government? Well, it is obvious this is ridiculous, because it is a fascist government. You would not do that.¹¹

But there are other things less easy to get over. I happen to come from the United States. I used in the Committee an example. I am going to use it again; it is purely hypothetical. We happen to have an island in the Caribbean called Puerto Rico. Now in Puerto Rico there are several factions. One faction would like to become a State. Another faction would like to be entirely free. Another faction would like to stay just the way they are in their relation to the United States.¹²Suppose, just for the sake of supposing, that we had a refugee camp. We belong to the United States, but are we going to say that the Puerto Ricans who happen to want to be free from the United States shall receive no letters from home, none of their home papers, no letters perhaps from people who have gone to live in other places, or information from other places? I think that we can stand up under having them free to get whatever information comes their way and make up their own minds. They are free human beings.

I think we have shown in the last few days that we do not intend to have refugee camps used as places for political agitation. We will prevent that whenever we discover it. But no propaganda, that is going pretty far.

What is propaganda? Are we so weak in the United Nations, are we as individual nations so weak, that we are going to forbid human beings to say what they think and to fear whatever their friends with their particular type of mind happen to believe in? Surely we can tell them, their own governments can tell them, all we want to tell them. We are not preventing them from hearing what each country wants them to hear, but we are saying, for instance, that in the United States we have people who have come there from war-torn Europe. They are in two different camps. They will write their relatives when they hear they are in different camps in Europe and they may not always say things that are exactly polite or in agreement with the United Nations. They may even say things against the United States, but I still think it is their right to say them and it is the right of men and women in refugee camps to hear them and to make their own decision.

I object to "no propaganda against the United Nations or any Member of the United Nations." It is like saying you are always sure you are going to be right. I am not always sure my Government or my nation will be right. I hope it will be and I shall do my very best to keep it as right as I can keep it and so, I am sure, will every other nation. But there are people who are going to disagree, and I think we aim to reach a point where we, on the whole, are so right that the majority of our people will be with us. We can always stand having amongst us the people who do not agree, because we are sure that the right is so carefully guarded, and the freedom of people is so carefully guarded, that we shall always have the majority with us.

For that reason I oppose including these amendments in a report which we have to accept, as I consider them to be restrictive of human rights and human freedom.

Tspex UNORGA, MwelC