Czechoslovakian
Human Rights Movements/Documents
Helsinki
Accords:
The
Helsinki Accords (a.k.a. the Helsinki Final Act) is a major diplomatic
agreement set and agreed upon in Helsinki, Finland on August 1st,
1975 at the conclusion of the Conference on Security and Cooperation
in Europe (CSCE) by 35 nations, including the then communist-controlled
Czechoslovakia. The documents drawn by the CSCE as a whole served
as an attempt to preserve peace, security, justice and cooperation
in post World War II Europe, especially as a measure to ease tensions
between the Soviet and Western blocs. Most importantly, the final
act in all these guaranteed basic human rights such as:
"The
participating States will respect human rights and fundamental
freedoms, including the freedom of thought, conscience, religion
or belief, for all without distinction to race, sex, language,
or religion.
"They will promote and encourage the effective exercise of
civil, political, economic, social, cultural, and other rights
and freedoms, all of which derive from the inherent dignity of
the human person and are essential for his free and full development.
"Within
this framework the participating States will recognize and respect
the freedom of the individual to profess and practice, alone or
in community with others, religion or belief acting in accordance
with the dictates of his own conscience.
"The
participating States on whose territory national minorities exist
will respect the right of persons belonging to such minorities
to equality before the law, will afford them the full opportunity
for the actual enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms
and will, in this manner protect their legitimate interest in
this sphere."
The
violation of some of these fundamentals by the repressive communist
government of Czechoslovakia prompted protest, as well as the
drawing and circulation of the manifesto document Charter 77 there
from 1977, which cited the Helsinki Accords in criticizing and
addressing oppression and injustice in the country.
*Full
Document: http://www.hri.org/docs/Helsinki75.html
Charter
77:
Petition
created by Czechoslovakian writers and intellectuals in 1977 in
opposition to the normalization agenda proposed and carried out
by the communist government in Czechoslovakia, seeking "the
respect for human and civil rights in [Czechoslovakia] and throughout
the world." It addressed the oppression, and human rights
violations of the said regime, for despite what was stated in
the Czechoslovakian Constitution, the Register of Laws No. 120
published in October 13, 1976 by the International Covenant on
Civil and Political Rights, and the International Covenant on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights signed on behalf of the republic
in 1968, and reiterated by the final act of the Helsinki Accords
of 1975 which came into force on March 23, 1976, none of the promises
of increased rights had been carried out by the state. Originally
published in a West German Newspaper in 1977, it was endorsed
by two hundred and three signers on January 1st of that year,
including prominent figures such as Vaclav Havel, Jan Patocka,
and former communist foreign minister Jiri Hajek, all three who
were specifically named spokespersons of the charter. The number
of signers rose to one thousand two hundred people in the mid-1980's,
and to about two thousand by the near collapse of 1989. Soon after
it was drawn, it was translated into many major languages, published
in foreign newspapers around Europe, and broadcast throughout
the Western part by radio stations. On the whole, most signers
were apolitical, common Czechoslovakian citizens who acted alone,
due to a law banning any organized opposition.
In
retaliation, the government harshly persecuted, ostracized and
isolated the dissidents who had signed the Charter 77. Many, including
Havel himself, were arrested and jailed indiscriminately for long
periods of time, interrogated (as Patocka was), followed, put
on trial or held in detention by the police, or sentenced to hard
labor. Others were dismissed from their current jobs and forced
to work at low-paying jobs, denied educational opportunities for
their children, exiled, had their driver's license suspended,
or lost their citizenship. All this was on the grounds that the
document was "antistate, antisocialist, and demagogic, abusive."
Some of those who signed were maligned as "traitors and renegades",
"loyal servant and agent of imperialism," "bankrupt
politician" and "international adventurer."
These reactions by the government against signers eventually resulted
in the formation of the support group, the Committee for the Defense
of the Unjustly Persecuted (VONS) in April of 1978.
Committee
for the Defense of the Unjustly Persecuted
One
of whose six cofounders was Vaclav Havel, VONS was a support group
created in reaction to the persecution of dissident Charter 77
signers by the Czechoslovakian government, then a communist regime,
in April 1978. It made known the fate of various signers, and
document human rights violations by the government and persecution.
Up to 1984, over 400 hundred cases were collected.
Civic
Forum (CF):
Coalition
of communist opposition groups, one of whose leaders was Vaclav
Havel, in November of 1989, for the promotion of democratic change
in Czechoslovakia before the toppling of the communist regime
after the Velvet Revolution, which it partly orchestrated along
with the Slovak group, Public Against Violence. Post-revolution,
some of its members were freely elected to office for the new
republic in May 1990, e.g. Havel as the first president. It financially
supported the founding of the Civic Forum Foundation (a separate
organization) in May 1990. This new group which has borrowed the
name of the former pursues strictly non-political, non-profit
charitable projects in Czechoslovakia seeking the rejuvenation
of the ideals of the original Civic Forum, as well as, more recently,
the revival and preservation of the culture heritage of the Czech
republic.
