Our sources reveal that it took the Assad regime no more than four days to renege on Syria's role in the
Helsinki accord. For regaining Quneitra, the Syrian army, led by disguised Hizbullah and Shiite troops, was obliged to evacuate the Beit Jinn pocket opposite the IDF's Hermon outpost.
Originally founded as a private American non-governmental organisation (NGO) in 1978, under the name of Helsinki Watch, to monitor the former Soviet Union's compliance with the
Helsinki Accord but later made to include overseeing human rights situations of many countries.
Jimmy Carter got the ball rolling after the
Helsinki accord of 1975 when he spoke of AmericaAEs mission to rid the world of authoritarianism and despotic rule; but it was the same administration that did little to help the people of Indonesia and the Philippines as they lived under the heels of two of the most corrupt and authoritarian pro-American despots, Ferdinand Marcos and General Suharto.
(7) Daniel Thomas, The
Helsinki Accord and Political Change in Eastern Europe, in THE POWER OF HUMAN RIGHTS: INTERNATIONAL NORMS AND DOMESTIC CHANGE (Thomas Risse, Stephen Ropp and Kathryn Skikkink eds., 1999).
With this intervention the Administration and NATO have abrogated many treaties and obligations of international law: Article 2 of the UN Charter prohibiting the use of force against sovereign states not engaged in outside aggression, for instance; the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties forbidding the use of force to compel any state to sign an international agreement; and the
Helsinki Accord Final Act guaranteeing the boundaries of European states.
Part III argues that human rights standards under the
Helsinki Accord independently proscribe forced "medical" sexual orientation interventions.
Nevertheless, serious problems remain and the Helsinki Watch report, issued on a preliminary basis in Moscow in early September at a
Helsinki Accord meeting, made numerous recommendations for reform.
On appeal, Havel's sentence was reduced from nine months to eight and he was given a mider prison regimen, making him eligible for release on May 15, two weeks before a session of the
Helsinki Accord signatories in Paris.
Today's leaders must show similar wisdom and vision, supporting the OSCE's efforts to revitalize the principles of the
Helsinki accord. This will require increased investment of both financial resources and political capital -- and a shared commitment to put that investment to good use.
Carter soon openly criticized the Soviets for denying Russian Jews their basic civil rights, a violation of human-rights protections outlined in the diplomatic agreement called the
Helsinki Accords.