Committees The 1975 Helsinki Final Act recognized respect for human rights and funda- mental freedoms, including the freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief as one of the ten basic principles guiding relations between participat- ing States. It affirmed “the right of the individual to know and act upon his rights and duties in this field.” The Helsinki Final Act, or the , as the agreement was often called, was published in full by the main newspapers of the 35 participating States, informing the people of what their leaders had signed up to. Public acceptance of human rights and fundamental freedoms inspired the estab- lishment of Helsinki Committees in the and Eastern , which were soon supported by similar groups in North America and Western Europe. It was dangerous at the time to report on violations of the Helsinki Final Act. In spite of the danger, their reports were tabled at the CSCE Follow- up meetings in the 1970s and 1980s and brought changes to people’s lives. Violations of human rights continue across the OSCE region. The work of the Helsinki Committees and related groups is as relevant today as it was 35 years ago.

The Helsinki Group The seed from which the Helsinki movement grew

by Ludmilla Alexeeva

public group to monitor compliance with the Hel- observe the Helsinki Accords in full measure, including Asinki Accords in the USSR, the Moscow Helsinki the humanitarian articles. Violation of these agreements Group (MHG), was established in Moscow on 12 May could have led to the collapse of the Helsinki Accords, 1976 on the basis of the third “basket” of the Helsinki something the Soviet leadership could not accept. It was Accords, which contains the humanitarian articles of very much in the USSR’s interest to maintain what was those Accords. These articles included basic human for it an extremely advantageous treaty, considering rights, whose observance members of the human rights that the country had been bled dry by lengthy isolation movement in the USSR had been seeking for some ten from the rest of the world and by a furious arms race. years. , the founder and first chairman of the Monitoring the entire vast territory of the USSR might MHG, envisioned its goal as follows: “The Group will have seemed an impossible task for the 11 members of monitor compliance with the humanitarian articles of the MHG. After all, they were just as disenfranchised the Helsinki Accords on the territory of the USSR and as all other Soviet citizens, and the Group’s equipment inform all States that have signed that document along consisted of two old typewriters. On the other hand, the with the Soviet Union of any violations.” Group did include experienced human rights activists The Helsinki Accords lay down a compliance moni- who had by that time gathered a great amount of mate- toring mechanism. Specifically, at annual conferences rial on the subjects in question. What is more, foreign the heads of all the delegations were to evaluate the radio stations broadcasting to the USSR constantly car- observance by all the partner States of the agreements ried reports on the work of the MHG, and began to they had signed. We hoped that the information we receive information on human rights violations from provided on violations of the humanitarian articles different ends of the country. We were informed of would be examined at these conferences and that the these matters by activists from the Ukrainian, Lithu-

P hoto : ©2010 i S tockphoto LP. democratic States would demand that the Soviet Union anian, Georgian and Armenian national movements.

OSCE Magazine 3/2010 9 These reports contained information regarding rights situation in any country that was a signa- infringements of the right to the use of one’s tory to the Helsinki Accords was recognized as a mother tongue, to education in one’s mother common concern for all partner countries. tongue, and the like. Religious activists (Bap- In this way, the tists, Adventists, Pentecostals and Catholics) became the seed from which the international told us of violations of the right to freedom of Helsinki movement, with its influence on the religion. Citizens who were not members of content of the Helsinki process, was to grow. any movement informed us of violations of the This was perhaps the first time in the history of humanitarian articles of the Helsinki Accords diplomacy that public groups played this kind that had affected either themselves or those of role in agreements between States: the Soviet close to them. Union was charged with violating the humani- Later on, following the MHG model, the tarian articles of the Helsinki Accords on the Ukrainian and Lithuanian Helsinki Groups basis of documents provided by the Moscow, were established in November 1976, the Geor- Ukrainian and Lithuanian Helsinki Groups. gian Helsinki Group in January 1977, the Under pressure from the democratic partner Armenian Helsinki Group in April 1977, the countries, not only the members of the Helsinki Christian Committee for the Defence of Believ- groups but also all imprisoned persons con- ers’ Rights in the USSR in December 1976 and victed under the political articles of the Soviet the Catholic Committee for the Defence of Criminal Code were released in the USSR in Believers’ Rights in November 1978. Helsinki 1987. In 1990 Soviet citizens were granted the committees also sprang up in Poland and right to freely leave the country and return, and Czechoslovakia. the persecution of religious believers ceased. Arrests began in the Ukrainian and Moscow The experience gained through this close Helsinki Groups in February 1977. One of the co-operation with non-governmental orga- first persons to be arrested was the chairman nizations was reflected in the fact that the of the MHG, Yuri Orlov. He was sentenced to OSCE was the first international association seven years’ imprisonment with hard labour of nations to include these organizations in its and five years’ exile. The Soviet court regarded working process as equal partners. At human his activities as anti-Soviet agitation and pro- dimension conferences, representatives of non- paganda with the intention of undermining the governmental organizations participate on a Soviet State and social structure. By autumn basis of parity with official representatives of 1977 more than 50 members of Helsinki groups OSCE States and are granted the floor in the had been deprived of their freedom. Many were same way that they are. given lengthy prison sentences, and some died The Moscow Helsinki Group, which at the before they were released. The media in the time of its founding was the only independent USSR’s democratic partner countries under public organization in the Soviet Union, today the Helsinki Accords covered the Helsinki pro- plays a leading role in the Russian human cess and the persecution of its participants in rights community and in the civil society that the USSR and its satellite States. The public in has evolved in the Russian Federation. The these countries responded to this persecution main area of the MHG’s work continues to be by establishing their own Helsinki groups and the monitoring of the human rights situation. committees. The establishment of the Ameri- Today, however, that monitoring and protec- can Helsinki Group was announced in Decem- tion of human rights is carried out not only on ber 1978. Similar organizations later sprang up the basis of the humanitarian articles of the in Canada and a number of Western European Helsinki Accords but also with the support of countries. The goal of all of them was to put a the Constitution of the Russian Federation, the stop to the persecution of their colleagues and European Convention on Human Rights and exert pressure on their national governments so Freedoms and other international treaties on that they would resolutely demand of the Soviet human rights signed by the Russian Federation. Union the implementation of the humanitarian articles of the Helsinki Accords. Ludmilla Alexeeva was a founding member of These efforts bore fruit. Beginning with the the Moscow Helsinki Group and has been its Madrid conference in October 1980, the demo- Chairperson since 1996. cratic participating States began at each con- ference to unanimously voice these demands. Gradually, observance of the commitments within the third “basket” became one of the main aspects of the Helsinki process. The Vienna conference of 1986 saw the signing of an additional protocol under which the human

10 3/2010 OSCE Magazine Helsinki voices

Several of the many Helsinki groups active today speak about their work.

“After the signing of the Helsinki Final While the 1948 Universal Dec- “The Helsinki Committee in Poland Act, members of the U.S. Congress laration of Human Rights gave an is a direct offspring of the European travelled to the Soviet Union and Cen- authoritative international definition of human rights movement, which was tral and Eastern Europe and witnessed human rights, the 1975 Helsinki Final inspired by the signing of the Helsinki with their own eyes the urgent need Act brought those rights to the door- Accords. It was founded as a citizen’s for continual monitoring of its imple- steps of all CSCE/OSCE countries. For initiative in 1982, and in the early mentation. By the summer of 1976, the Norwegian Helsinki Committee, years the activists were forced to work our country established the Commis- the main task remains to bring those underground, as they had to fear sion on Security and Cooperation in rights over that doorstep in order to repression from the government. Europe, also known as the U.S. Hel- make them fully operative in all coun- Nowadays, the Helsinki Commit- sinki Commission. tries of the OSCE area.” tee in Poland is a group of respected Our commission continues to moni- — Gunnar M. Ekeløve-Slydal, Deputy individuals making statements on high tor OSCE States’ implementation of Secretary General, Norwegian profile human rights violations of con- their commitments. Often we have Helsinki Committee cern. The daily human rights’ work is been the platform for freedom — giv- done by the Helsinki Foundation for ing leaders silenced at home the chance “ began in 1978 Human Rights, a non-governmental to be heard abroad. But the real heroes with the creation of , organization with over 40 employees are the human rights defenders work- whose purpose was to support the that promotes the protection of human ing on the ground to expose abuses citizens groups established throughout rights in Europe. The main areas of as they occur. Unfortunately, 35 years the Soviet bloc to monitor government the HFHR’s activity are education in after the Helsinki Final Act, in some compliance with the 1975 Helsinki the field of human rights (especially in OSCE countries these modern heroes Accords. A network of Watch Com- former Commonwealth of Independent still work under threat and fear of mittees monitored human rights also States territory) and different monitor- retaliation. We still have a lot of work in the Americas, Asia, Africa and the ing, advocacy and strategic litigation to do. The OSCE helps us do that work Middle East, and the network adopted activities aimed to enhance protection together. And we’re proud the U.S. Hel- the all-inclusive name Human Rights of human rights in Poland.” sinki Commission has been at the lead- Watch in 1988. — Helsinki Foundation for Human ing edge of that effort in many cases.” New human rights challenges in Rights, Poland — U.S. Senator Benjamin L. Cardin the 1990s led to important innova- and U.S. Representative Alcee L. tions in the work of Human Rights “The Albanian Helsinki Committee Hastings, Chairmen, Commission on Watch, including real-time reporting was founded in 1990 at a time when Security and Cooperation in Europe of atrocities and in-depth documenta- the totalitarian regime was collapsing. tion of cases to press for international Initially, it was called the Forum for “Although the world has changed, prosecutions. the Protection of Fundamental Human the Helsinki Final Act remains highly Today, Human Rights Watch works Freedoms and Rights, and it was the relevant for the work of the Norwe- on a broad range of issues worldwide, first organization of its kind in the his- gian Helsinki Committee, founded in ranging from domestic violence to tory of Albania. 1977. Unfortunately, increasingly so. terrorism response. Combining its It is the mission of the Albanian It is especially two features of the Hel- traditional on-the-ground fact-finding Helsinki Committee to contribute to a sinki Final Act that remain important. with new technologies, such as statisti- better respect of human rights and to Firstly, that it was intended to establish cal research, satellite photography and strengthen the rule of law and human a comprehensive framework for peace bomb data analysis, and innovative rights in accordance with the Helsinki and stability in Europe. And secondly, advocacy keeps Human Rights Watch Final Act and its follow-up documents, that it included human rights and fun- on the cutting edge of promoting and with the international legal obli- damental freedoms in that framework. respect for human rights worldwide.” gations set by the Council of Europe, The fact that some of the OSCE par- — Human Rights Watch the United Nations and the European ticipating States have decided to target Union.” human rights defenders as enemies of — Vjollca Meçaj, Executive Director, the state constitutes an enormous set- Albanian Helsinki Committee back for the advancement of Helsinki principles. That is why the upcoming OSCE Summit needs to reaffirm in strong language the letter and spirit of the Helsinki Final Act.

OSCE Magazine 3/2010 11 “The Netherlands Helsinki Committee “Our Committee started its work in 1994. “The Helsinki Final Act with all the (NHC) was established in 1987, when the It’s predecessor, the Yugoslav Helsinki related texts enriching it since the 1990s prospects for co-operation in Europe on Committee, simply dissolved like Yugo- has been the driving force behind many democratization and promotion of human slavia did, and new groups emerged. NGOs, including the Greek Helsinki rights became greater. Since then, the Especially in the founding phase, the Hel- Monitor, in their efforts to help improve NHC and its local partners have carried sinki principles were of great importance democracy in the OSCE countries by out dozens of projects on capacity-build- for us and for the other newly established securing the respect of all rights of every ing of civil society and governmental bod- organizations. social group — especially the most vul- ies in Central and Eastern Europe, with a During the 1990s, our Committee lived nerable ones. Moreover, the Helsinki/ focus on improvement of the rule of law: through difficult times. As wars were still OSCE process that installed a public dia- strategic litigation on human rights (in raging, our activities focused on refugees, logue between civil society and states has particular the European Human Rights minorities, war crimes, genocide, the often helped solve specific human rights Convention), prison reform, developing intimidation of human rights defenders, problems, as democratic states cannot ombudsman services and fighting human and the ethnification of the public sphere. afford to be embarrassed in such forums. trafficking. The NHC founded the jour- Today the focus of our work lies on the The Greek Helsinki Monitor today focus- nal Helsinki Monitor (renamed Security implementation of laws affecting human es on minority rights, including Roma and Human Rights in 2008), devoted to rights and on human rights education. rights, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans- human rights, peace and security in the Although we have already achieved a lot gender rights, freedom of religion and OSCE region. In November 2010, the in Serbia, there is still a long way ahead.” state neutrality towards religions, reports journal is launching an OSCE weblog at — Sonja Biserko, Helsinki Committee for to United Nations and Council of Europe www.shrblog.org. An under-resourced Human Rights in Serbia expert bodies and litigation before Greek part of the NHC mission is advocacy on and international courts.” the implementation of human dimension “The foundation of Helsinki España — — Panayote Dimitras, Greek Helsinki and human rights commitments in great- Human Dimension was initiated during Monitor er Europe. Plans are to beef up this aspect an OSCE conference in Moscow in 1991. of the work in the coming years.” The aim was to promote the OSCE’s “The birth of Bridging the Gulf was — Harry Hummel, Executive Director, human dimension through the education inspired by the Helsinki process, arising Netherlands Helsinki Committee of human rights, fundamental liberties, out of the 1975 Helsinki Final Act, which democracy and the rule of law within the emphasized the peaceful co-existence “The Bulgarian Helsinki Committee was university context. of states, mutual non-interference and established in 1992 after the fall of com- To carry out its educative work, Helsin- the respect for human rights, as well as munism. Most of the founding members, ki España acts through an International economic and personal contacts across however, were active in human rights University Network, comprising 140 borders. Our initiative is based on the groups already during communism and universities from 53 different countries. conviction that peaceful and respect- operated in opposition to the regime. We Within this network, Helsinki España ful contacts from outside the region will were inspired by the Helsinki Final Act, organizes international university meet- lessen the tensions in the area and posi- as well as by the subsequent CSCE com- ings on human rights, offers courses to tively influence regional and international mitments. Our organization was founded prepare experts for their participation in co-operation. to monitor the implementation of these peace missions of international organiza- We promote and advocate human secu- commitments, as we strongly believe that tions, including the OSCE, the United rity, human rights, women’s rights and this process requires the attentive eyes Nations and the European Union. Helsin- the development of civil society in the of non-governmental public watchdogs. ki España also trains university volunteers Gulf region. At the same time, the foun- Since our foundation we have investi- to teach human rights sessions in primary dation aims to build a bridge between the gated and reported on a broad range of and secondary schools. Gulf region and Europe by establishing human rights violations in Bulgaria. We — Ana Nieto, Executive President, Hel- platforms for dialogue and exchange and publish annual reports on human rights sinki España – Human Dimension by promoting the understanding of the developments in Bulgaria and raise pub- Gulf region in Europe.” lic awareness on specific human rights — Wilco de Jonge, General Secretary, problems affecting vulnerable groups in Bridging the Gulf our society. We also take individual cases to adjudicating bodies and participate in the reviews by the United Nations and the Council of Europe of the human rights situation in Bulgaria.”

— Krassimir Kanev, Bulgarian Helsinki Prepared by Vera Mair, Intern at the OSCE Committee Secretariat’s Press and Public Information Section

12 3/2010 OSCE Magazine in Sarajevo, where a human chain In the past decade, the Helsinki Citi- The Helsinki of 10,000 people linked the mosque, zens’ Assembly, chaired by Arzu Abdul- the synagogue and the Orthodox and layeva from Azerbaijan and Bernard Catholic churches. The ties forged dur- Dreano from France, has undergone Citizens’ ing the visit of the peace caravan were various transformations. Some of the sustained, by and large, throughout the assemblies have turned into think- war — a war led “against the values of tanks — the South Caucasus Institute Assembly tolerance, mutual respect and individu- of Regional Security in is an al autonomy that were the centre-piece example. The fight against terror and by Siegfried Wöber of the original eighteenth-century con- changing foreign aid policies have cer- ception of civil society,” as one leading tainly had an impact. New activities Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly activist, have been launched in the Middle East Mary Kaldor, later wrote. — in Israel, Palestine and Iran. hat can citizens do towards The Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly also Still, the original aims and the Wbuilding the united, peaceful and became active early on in the South eclectic nature of the network remain. secure Europe, which the CSCE partici- Caucasus. National committees estab- Active groups or persons associating pating States envisaged in the Helsinki lished in , Azerbaijan and themselves with the Helsinki Citi- Accords? For more than 20 years, Georgia were among the first NGOs in zens’ Assembly can still be found in peace activists from East and West have the region. The movement, supported Bosnia, Montenegro, Austria, France, worked together for this joint goal, by Assembly members from the West, the Netherlands, the South Caucasus, united in a platform called the Helsinki successfully worked on the liberation Moldova, Poland and Turkey, where Citizens’ Assembly. of hostages and prisoners of war and the next annual School of International The Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly was on maintaining contacts and building Dialogue and Understanding will take founded in in October 1990. trust between citizens across frontlines. place. Istanbul will also host a 20-year Vaclav Havel, the new President of This work is still going on, since the jubilee event in October, to provide Czechoslovakia, spoke at the found- rights of families of missing persons are time for reflection and space for a gen- ing assembly, which brought together often neglected and involuntary disap- erational change. Some might claim the more than 1,000 people from all over pearances continue all over the region. “Helsinki spirit” is gone, but there is Europe. The decision to create such a In October 2000, Helsinki Citizens’ still more than enough energy in this network went back to the second half of Assembly Azerbaijan organized the movement to keep it alive. the 1980s, when members of the West- fifth international Assembly in Baku. ern European peace movement took up More than 500 civil society activists contact with opposition groups behind from all over the world, including 41 the Iron Curtain and developed the Armenians, of which 12 came from Siegfried Wöber has been involved in the strategy of “détente from below”. Nagorno-Karabakh, attended. Some of Helsinki movement since 2000. He is a From the very beginning, the Assem- these persons recently created the “Civil staff member of the OSCE Secretariat’s bly focused on regions of tension and Minsk Process”. Conflict Prevention Centre in Vienna. possible conflict, with the aim of cre- ating a pan-European civil society. It promoted peace and understanding through citizens’ dialogue and diplo- macy — providing support and solidar- ity to groups in difficult and dangerous situations, simultaneously lobbying different governments and international institutions — something that was much more cumbersome before the advent of the Internet. In the 1990s, the Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly network was a relatively well- organized body with branches in more than 20 countries, while still retaining Parents of missing the character of a grassroots movement. soldiers from Armenia Its Yugoslav branch was founded in and Azerbaijan, under Georgian Sarajevo in May 1991. A peace caravan and international was held in September of that year. mediation, who Some 40 European activists travelled by prepared the first joint Armenian- bus through Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia Azeri publication and Bosnia, connecting with local anti- on the topic. Photo: war activists. The caravan culminated Alexander Russetski

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