EDITORIAL: Helsinki's promise (07/30/00)

EDITORIAL

Helsinki's promise

"The participating states recognize the universal significance of human rights and fundamental freedoms, respect for which is an essential factor for the peace, justice and well-being necessary to ensure the development of friendly relations and cooperation among themselves as among all states." - The Helsinki Final Act.

Twenty-five years ago 35 states signed the Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe. These unprecedented meetings had begun in Helsinki in July 1973, continued in Geneva from September 1973 through July 1975, and concluded in Helsinki on August 1, 1975.

The Final Act contained three "baskets" - Questions Relating to Security in Europe; Cooperation in the Field of Economics, Science and Technology, and the Environment; and Cooperation in Humanitarian and Other Fields - and a decalogue of fundamental principles ranging from inviolability of borders and territorial integrity of states to peaceful settlement of disputes and non-intervention in internal affairs, as well respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms.

The Final Act underscored the ideals outlined in the Charter of the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and in its third basket addressed basic human rights, self-determination, reunification of families and access to information. The mere fact that these issues were addressed raised the hopes of millions around the globe. Rights activists in the USSR and other states that curtailed the rights of their citizens were emboldened by the Helsinki Final Act. The USSR, of course, was not interested in the human rights sections of the accords, and it certainly did not foresee that Helsinki monitoring groups would spring up in Moscow, Ukraine, Lithuania, Georgia and Armenia. One of the most courageous of these groups, the Kyiv-based Ukrainian Public Group to Promote Implementation of the Helsinki Accords, pledged in its Memorandum No. 1 that: "The struggle for human rights will not cease until these rights become the everyday standard in society." For that pledge and that struggle, many human and national rights defenders paid dearly - enduring jails, prison camps and exile. Some sacrificed their lives.

It is notable also that the Helsinki Accords provided for "follow-up to the conference" to ensure implementation of its provisions. In fact, at review conferences in Belgrade, Madrid and Vienna participating states made further commitments to the principles embodied in the original accords.

Today known as the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the structure born in Helsinki now comprises several bodies, among them a Secretariat, Ministerial Council, Senior Council and a Permanent Council; a High Commissioner for National Minorities, a chairman-in-office and a secretary general; the Forum for Security Cooperation, Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights and a Parliamentary Assembly, as well as missions and field presences that operate in 18 countries. All of these bodies function in addition to regular summit meetings involving heads of state or government. The OSCE now encompasses 54 states - among them Ukraine, which became a participating state in 1992.

The Helsinki Final Act, then, is a watershed in European history whose ramifications are still felt today. In 1975 the accords were seen as visionary - idealistic, but perhaps impractical. In the end, however, the promise of Helsinki was realized.

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