Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, May 12, 1994                   TAG: 9405120179
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                 LENGTH: Medium

SENATE AGAIN WEIGHS RATIFICATION OF U.N. ANTI-RACISM CONVENTION

``Ratification is long overdue,'' John Shattuck, assistant secretary of state for human rights, said in telling the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that the Clinton administration, unlike its predecessors, wants to join the convention.

More than 135 nations have ratified the convention since it was adopted by the U.N. General Assembly in 1966. But apart from a hearing by the same committee during the Carter administration in 1979, there has been no move toward seeking Senate advice and consent for ratification.

Republican administrations have opposed the convention in the fear that some of its wording might conflict with U.S. laws on racial discrimination, that international courts might interfere with the U.S. legal system or that Cold War enemies would use it for anti-American propaganda purposes.

Parties under the convention are required to take specific steps to eliminate racial discrimination, prohibit segregation and apartheid, condemn racial propaganda and racist organizations, guarantee equal human rights to all and promote tolerance in education and culture.

By ratifying the convention, Shattuck said, the United States can inject new energy into the U.N. human rights system and better hold other signers to their commitments. ``We need no longer fear that in so doing we would be playing into the hands of geopolitical adversaries,'' he said.

The Justice Department is asking that ratification be accompanied by three reservations regarding U.S. legal obligations under the convention.