Human Rights, the Helsinki Process and the Soviet Bloc, 1971-1989
Nov. 16, 2023, 4:30-6:00pm
CGIS South, S354, 1730 Cambridge St, Cambridge, MA
The Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE), signed by 35 heads of state on 1 August 1975, came after several years of international negotiations against the backdrop of the Cold War. The participants had sharply differing views of the purpose of CSCE. For numerous Western countries, human rights played a key role. But in the Soviet bloc, Communist rulers sought to prevent CSCE from being invoked by human rights activists and organizations to press for greater freedom. This seminar will explore how this issue was viewed in the Soviet bloc.