Helsinki and Orwell

...Thus the Soviet Constitution provides that freedom of speech, press and assembly can be exercised only "in conformity with the interests of the working people and for the purpose of strengthening the socialist system...

...And the inversion process has been extended in still another direction with results that are grotesque...

...When Lewis Carroll's perturbed Alice asked the Cat in Wonderland, "where do we go from here...

...Second, new implementation proposals are in order to clarify, sharpen, and make more precise the intent of the Final Act...

...In an ideal world, this formulation would appear denigrating, perhaps unpalatable...

...Caprice of an all-embracing character exists in Soviet decision-making in this field...

...The Kremlin's response has been a perfect .example of Orwellian inversion...

...memory hole...

...Second, the Final Act provides, in embryonic form, for an instrument of implementation...

...In fact, Principle VI lists the acts that are specifically barred, and Western criticism of Soviet performance is not among them...

...As applied to the Final Act, the principle of linkage means that progress in Baskets I and II—a consummation devoutly sought by the USSR—inherently requires a corresponding advance in Basket III...

...The large majority, whether NATO members or neutral European states, have strong democratic traditions...

...It would shatter at last the cynicism of Humpty-Dumpty, who anticipated Orwell when he confided to Alice: "When I use a word, it means what I choose it to mean...

...Article 59 of the new Soviet draft constitution adds a further limitation by stressing that "the exercise of rights and freedoms shall be inseparable from the performance by citizens of their duties...

...A survey conducted among 500 "refusenik" families early in 1976 indicates that three-quarters of the refusals were based on "security...

...Indeed, the American diplomats who participated in the two years of negotiations leading up to the agreement had played a passive role regarding the human rights clauses...

...A detailed sample survey by the U.S...

...In the Final Act, it was expressed in formal Principles: the "Inviolability of Frontiers," the "Territorial Integrity of States," "Refraining from the Threat of Use of Force," and "Non-intervention in Internal Affairs...

...Yet, "national security" is the principal reason given for refusing exit visas...

...In the United States, which moved so vigorously that some of its Western allies begat) to express concern and to propose caution, the pace was set by the Helsinki Commission on Security and Cooperation, a 15-member body representing Congress (12) and the Executive (3), which had been established by legislation...

...In the first place, it sets a standard in the human rights field for all the signatory powers and thereby legitimizes inquiry into whether and how the standard is fulfilled by each of them...

...The phrase "freer movement of people and ideas" summarized the aim of this "Basket...

...Prior to the Final Act, 22 percent had to wait from one to six years for their exit visas...

...Such "duties" include not only the "observance" of Soviet laws, but "respect for the rules of Socialist behavior...

...But the monumental Kremlin effort to manipulate and distort the language of the Final Act testifies to the potential significance of Helsinki, not to its inadequacy...

...What is required is a determination and commitment to use the leverage for that purpose...

...In most cases, the refused applicant either never had access to "state secrets" or had ceased his employment in a security-type Soviet institution long before he made application to leave...

...In addition, the signatories pledged that the act of applying for a visa would "not modify the rights and obligations" of the applicant or members of his family...

...A fully mature person has to have the approval of a parent who may conceivably be senile or who may have strong personal or political reasons for frustrating the aspiration of an offspring...

...The possibility of abuse on such so-called "moral" grounds is apparent...

...A high Central Committee official, A. Ivanov, revealed the authoritative viewpoint on February 16, 1976: "We must . . . know the parents' attitude to the children's emigration...

...In other words, the human rights principle is as important as any of the principles dealing with security and it must be taken into account when applying the others...

...But the effectiveness of Orwellian inversion depends on the ability of its practitioners to proceed without challenge to their authority...

...Human rights are now defined not as a privilege extended by a government but rather as inherent in the human condition...

...Chaired by Congressman Dante Fascell, it has held hearings and issued lengthy, well-researched reports spotlighting violations of the Helsinki accords...

...Distortion and inversion are, again, typical...

...The episode was dropped—in Orwell's classic phrase—into history's...

...As to the question of "moderate" costs of exit visa fees, the USSR, after Helsinki, lowered its pre-1976 exit visa fee from 400 rubles to 300 rubles...

...Even more egregious is the use of the 1973 Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to negate the application of the Helsinki Final Act...

...Catch 22: the grown sons of two prominent "refuseniks"—Vladimir Slepak and Aleksandr Lerner—were denied visas to join members of their families abroad on the basis that leaving their parents in the USSR would split the families...

...Shumilin has reversed the clear intent of the clause...

...Suddenly, the "residual" categories of the agreement became the focus of international attention...

...The parents, of course, have for years been trying to emigrate with no success...

...The Soviet Union's version of 1984 was detailed on November 9, 1976 by Tass and published the next day in Izvestia: ". . .the secrets of a State are always its exclusive property...

...The emigrant-interviewees were, of course, comparatively fortunate...

...And this is a crucial point...

...The minimum to which the citizens of the Helsinki signatories want to get is to know what their rights are...

...Indeed, Brezhnev went so far as to declare that the "major" conclusion reached at Helsinki was that "no one should try to dictate to other peoples...

...When the Soviet Union persists, as it does, in its gross violations of the Helsinki agreement, it explains and justifies its actions through inverting meaning...

...With no published law covering such restrictions, applicants are deprived of still another fundamental right spelled out in the Helsinki Final Act: "the right of an individual to know his rights...

...They derive, says the text, from "the inherent dignity of the human person and (are) essential for his free and full development...

...Leonid Brezhnev, speaking to the World Congress of Peace Forces in the same year, said "Talk of freedom and human rights in the West" is only an attempt "to interfere in the internal affairs of the socialist countries...

...Some applicants are refused on grounds that their relatives in the USSR have knowledge of state secrets...

...And that standard, the signatories agreed, carries a transcen-dant significance...

...The Soviet "quo" for the Western "quid" was the acceptance of Principle VII— "Respect for Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, including the Freedom of Thought, Conscience, Religion or Belief...

...The 32-member UN Commission on Human Rights is structurally in no position to do much in the field of human rights except to mock its own purpose...

...In addition, the Soviet Union was compelled to accept "Basket II"—"Cooperation in Humanitarian and Other Fields...

...Watchdog" groups sprang up in virtually every Communist country, in keeping with "the right of the individual to know and act upon his rights" (Principle VII...

...Linkage is at the very heart of detente...

...They are compelled to renounce their Soviet citizenship and, for this purpose, they are obliged to pay an additional 500 rubles...

...The process of Helsinki is, in fact, a process of continuing implementation, of making expectation increasingly realizable...

...Still, the "quo" could easily have been seen—and was by most observers at the time—as a rhetorical gesture, a symbolic concession which hardly matched the Soviet gains...

...Helsinki Commission on Security and Cooperation documents one aspect of the problem...

...after the Helsinki Final Act was signed, the percentage rose to 75...

...The Soviet representative demanded that the address be expunged from the record, and sufficient votes were marshalled to achieve this end...

...They provide a foundation upon which the participants can insist on clarification rather than obfuscation, on accuracy rather than inversion...

...In fact, the reason is plain: Orwell exposed the fundamental commitment of totalitarian societies to the destruction of language...

...It projects an initial "follow-up" meeting and "further similar meetings...

...In the face of the language of the Final Act, and confronted by growing public pressure for its implementation, the Kremlin has resorted to various Orwellian responses...

...Reunion with a brother, an aunt, a married child, or a grandparent, can now be halted...

...Throughout history, from Socrates through the Magna Carta to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the right to emigrate has been perceived as central to human liberty...

...And then, of course, there was Jimmy Carter, who chose, just one week after his election, to announce that "consummation of the Helsinki agreement concerning human rights would be an ever-present consideration" in his thinking about Soviet-American relations...

...The formal reason was that it would "contradict the spirit of the exhibition...

...The preparatory conference of the current Belgrade conclave reached the firm decision that Belgrade would not adjourn until it fixes a date for the next follow-up meeting...

...Forty-one percent of the post-Final Act emigrant group report that'they have family or friends in the USSR who have either been refused permission to emigrate or were intimidated into not applying...

...Another decision of the preliminary conference made clear that Belgrade would not simply become a forum for meaningless platitudes about the future...

...The phrase is used by the Soviets to justify their requirement for parental approval of a desire by a son or daughter to emigrate—no matter what the age of the "child...

...That balance is reflected in Principle VII and Basket III of the Final Act, and in the decisions reached at the Belgrade preparatory meeting...

...The value of Helsinki, even if it is a non-binding document, springs from several considerations...

...There, Helsinki was widely acclaimed as the greatest historic event since the defeat of Hitler's armies...

...Of 1035 Jews who finally succeeded in emigrating, as many as 20 percent indicated difficulties in receiving the required affidavits from their families in Israel...

...For the majority of its members represent governments which are either totalitarian or authoritarian in character...

...In the view of Ingles, deprivation of the right "may be tantamount to the total deprivation of liberty if not life itself...

...It is true that little progress, and that mainly of a cosmetic nature, has been achieved since August 1, 1975 in altering human rights patterns in the USSR and among its Warsaw bloc countries...

...And in the Soviet Union of the 1970's, "Newspeak" already is the official language...

...For a family of four persons, the cost is extremely burdensome: it is equivalent to the entire salary of a university professor over a six-month period...

...instead it would evaluate progress made thus far...

...So much for handling exit visas in a "humanitarian" and "expeditious" manner...

...Besides "national security," Soviet authorities also apply the phrase "rights and freedoms of others" among the specified possible restrictions of the Covenant as an excuse for refusing numerous applications for exit visas...

...Instead of manifesting a "positive and humanitarian spirit," Soviet policy-makers require applicants for exit visas to run a gauntlet of prolonged torment...

...Thus a total of 800 rubles is asked of each Jewish applicant...

...he relates that he wept bitter tears when he read the terms of the accord...

...Such a review process will contribute to puncturing the obfuscation of Orwellian distortion and casuistry...

...Gross abridgement of the "reunion of family" provisions of the Final Act has been and remains a distinctive feature of Soviet policy...

...To the extent that detente is indivisible, reciprocation is indispensable . Accommodation in one field requires a reciprocal response in another...

...How large, in absolute numbers, this group is cannot be ascertained...

...The head of the Office of Visas and Registration (OVIR), Vladimir Obidin, in September 1976, announced: "We are now putting a stop to all arbitrary emigration...

...So if the USSR now accepted Helsinki, observers were entitled to suppose that it had no intention of changing its approach to the question of human rights, that it felt confident it could persist in its traditional restrictions of those rights, that it believed its concessions were trivial rather than fundamental...

...When Ambassador Goldberg, who heads the American delegation to Belgrade, speaks, his words—it is certain—will be clearly spread on the record, not expunged...

...the manner in which they ought to manage their internal affairs...

...That is why it is an internal question for the Soviet Union to decide which specific works or information are to be considered secret . . ."In this way, even the restrictive provision of the right to leave clause in the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights is emptied of meaning...

...The value of the implementing instrument, in the form of regularized meetings of the signatories, can be better appreciated by contrast to another international human rights organ...

...Seventy-five percent were never shown any official regulations concerning procedures necessary for making application to emigrate...

...One known figure does throw light on the question: there are approximately 180,000 Soviet Jews who have sought and received affidavits from their families in Israel and who are still in the USSR...

...In addition, "Basket II" of the Final Act promised cooperation in trade and expanded scientific-technological exchange, another bonus to the Soviets...

...The positive significance of the Helsinki Final Act, signed on August 1, 1975, by the heads of the 35 countries of Europe and North America, was not apparent at the time...

...President Carter underscored this theme in his commencement address at the University of Notre Dame on May 22, 1977...

...The then U.S...

...The Deputy Minister of Interior, Boris Shumilin, declared: "Restrictions that we sometimes impose proceed directly from the clauses of the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights...

...In the "Newspeak" of 1984, words are inverted...

...He was referring to a particular section in the Covenant which restricts "the right to leave any country" on grounds of "national security," "public order," and "the rights and freedom of others...

...Other harassment techniques were expulsion from an academic institution, removal from one's apartment, demotion in place of employment, and sudden drafting into the army...

...Even if all decisions of the Conference were taken by consensus, in closed meetings, the balance is weighted on the side of those with vigorous human rights traditions...

...To the extent that the Final Act is basically a standard and an aspiration, its meaning must have a clarity that would make a specious or fraudulent interpretation more difficult to uphold...

...In the name of detente, and in return for some modest symbolic language regarding human rights, the Soviets had been accorded a major benefit...

...The leverage can be directly applied to Orwellian inversion on two levels...

...In accordance with the decisions of the agreement at Helsinki, we shall let people go only where it is for reunification of families, and a family, in accordance with the Code on Marriage and the Family of the USSR, consists only of husbands, wives and their unmarried children...

...The potential of Helsinki is the reason for Sinyavsky's optimism as it is the reason for the desperate maneuverings by the Soviet authorities to eviscerate the meaning of the Final Act...

...Only 59 percent of those who emigrated before August 1, 1975 received approval of their exit visas within six months after application...

...The burdens of harassment weigh particularly heavily upon professional persons, according to the survey...

...they mean the precise opposite of what they seem to mean...

...after the Final Act, the percentage dropped to 12...

...Signatories of Helsinki pledged themselves to "deal in a positive and humanitarian spirit with persons who wish to be reunited with members of their family...

...But the problem is that the purpose of the right to leave clause in the Covenant was clearly to extend freedom of movement...

...Thus, by arbitrary fiat, "intervention" was redefined to include any form of criticism...

...Obidin publicly referred to such cases in an interview published on January 23, 1977...

...But in the real world of balance and detente, it indicates the leverage available to promote human rights...

...A particularly important beginning in this direction is to require governments, under the right to know one's rights, to publish their respective laws and regulations relevant to the application of the Final Act...

...In fulfillment of this objective, governments are to handle applications for exit visas "as expeditiously as possible" and "to ensure" that exit visa fees are set at a "moderate level" or even lowered "when necessary...

...Thus, human rights are formally declared to be intimately linked with other aspects of state relationships...

...It is precisely for this reason that the Helsinki Final Act and the Belgrade review conference are of such significance...

...Harassment of applicants is especially widespread and increasing despite the obligation to "not modify" their rights...

...As if to prove the onesided quality of the final document, it was received with extravagant enthusiasm by the USSR...

...The most dramatic inversion, however, has been reserved for Basket III, and especially the section of its "human contacts" component which deals with the reunion of families...

...They believed that the West had simply capitulated to Soviet demands without extracting any compensatory benefit...

...It goes without saying that Western arguments should and can be presented in a straightforward and nonpo-lemical manner...

...In addition to the predictable— and brutal—repression of the various watchdog committees in the USSR, Western demands for adherence to Principle VII were declared to be an abridgement of Principle VI, obliging signatories to "refrain from any intervention direct or indirect, individual or collective, in the internal or external affairs falling within the domestic jurisdiction of another participating state...

...The most frequently noted was loss of job, with over one-third of post-Final Act emigrants specifying this device...

...The third consideration is by far the most important...

...The "refusenik"—one who has been persistently refused exit visas for as long as seven years—is a not uncommon phenomenon...

...The practice of Orwellian inversion is not new...

...The classic UN study on the subject, prepared by Judge Jose Ingles in 1963, contended that the right to leave a country is "an indispensable condition for the full enjoyment by all of the other civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights...

...These were far more the product of the vigor and determination of the British, the West Germans, the Canadians and the French...

...The text stipulates that the signatories "declare . . . their resolve to continue the multilateral process" through an "exchange of views" on "the implementation of the provisions of the Final Act...

...From the Soviet perspective, a principal political objective it had pursued since 1954—namely, formal diplomatic sanction by the West for the status quo in Eastern Europe—had at last been achieved...

...Yet a process has been set in motion which, if pursued with diligence, determination and sophistication by the West, can produce meaningful salutary results...

...Refusal of visas on grounds of "insufficient closeness of relatives" is currently quite common...

...When the Soviet Union ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in October of 1973, Pravda and Izvestia chose to emphasize not the obligations to observe human rights but those aspects of the Covenant which limit or restrict human rights (on grounds of national security or public order...

...Even Sinyavsky came to see the document as a beacon of hope rather than as a cause for tears...

...It is the idea of linkage, an essential and decisive element which is built into the Final Act itself: "All the principles set forth above are of primary significance and, accordingly, they will be equally and unreservedly applied, each of them being interpreted taking into account the others.'' (Emphasis added...

...Fifty-one percent of the pre-Final Act emigrants and 57 percent of post-Final Act emigrants reported one or another form of harassment...

...They should be formulated in such a way as to reduce caprice and arbitrariness...

...Ambassador to the UN, Arthur Goldberg, addressing the Commission, delivered a pointed critique of the maladministration of Soviet justice in the trial and conviction of Andrei Sinyavsky and Yuli Daniel...

...But the Helsinki Final Act now appears to belong to that category of international agreement whose consequences are unanticipated...

...The listed acts include "armed intervention or threat of such intervention," "any other act of military, political, economic or other coercion," and "assistance to terrorist activities...

...Focusing a glaring light upon what is unilaterally treated as confidential cannot but limit arbitrary invocation of Orwellian inversion...

...That would be no small accomplishment...

...If the Final Act is, fundamentally, a product of diplomacy, it also demonstrates that the Soviet Union considers human rights to be a negotiable item on the international agenda...

...Indeed, in some respects regression has taken place...

...It emphasizes that the right to leave "shall not be subject to any restrictions except those which are provided by law...

...Implicit in this task is a close and hard look at inadequacies in fulfillment of Basket III provisions and the setting of an agenda for their correction...

...Waiting periods for many were long...

...Andrei Sinyav-sky's reaction was typical: Dr...

...The "Basket" contained four sections— "Human Contacts," "Information ," " Cooperation and Exchanges in Fields of Culture," and "Cooperation and Exchanges in the Field of Education...

...Confrontation tactics are b<jth unnecessary and counterproductive...

...The Provisions of Basket III became known to the people of Eastern Europe, and kindled general hopes as well as specific demands for both emigration and greater freedom of expression...

...Applicants for exit visas are now being refused on grounds that they would leave members of their family behind them, thus creating a "division of families...

...In striking contrast is the composition of the Conference on Security and Cooperation...

...It is equivalent to the earnings of an average Soviet citizen over a two to three month period...

...The drafters of Basket III had correctly perceived the right of emigration as a core human rights issue...

...But this is hardly a "moderate" amount...

...And that is the whole of the list...

...Illuminating the Commission's character is an extraordinary episode of March 1968...

...Indeed, many activists and dissenters in Eastern Europe perceived the document as merely a ratification—and, therefore, a legitimization—of Soviet domination in Eastern Europe...

...William Korey is Director of the B'nai Brith International Council...

...Thus, the purpose of the Final Act—to ease emigration procedures—is inverted so as to limit emigration...

...Utter arbitrariness prevails in the decisions of OVIR...

...Respect for human rights is declared to be "an essential factor for peace" and is a major element in their "mutual relations...

...Others are refused because their field of research might become, in the future, a state secret...

...the Cat, with irrefutable logic, replied: "that depends upon where you want to get to...

...After all, the Soviet Union had resisted Western efforts to have the Universal Declaration of Human Rights approved by the United Nations in 1948, and had always insisted that human rights are secondary to the interests of the state...

...Family" has been redefined so as to circumscribe rather than extend the emigration rights flowing from "reunion of families...

...The burden is compounded for Jews who seek to emigrate...

...Moreover, there is no known provision in Soviet law that deals with the restrictions permitted in the Covenant...

...One applicant may be permitted to leave while a colleague with exactly the same job and experience is turned down...

...It often happens that parents cannot become morally reconciled to the emigration of their children . . . We must take into account the moral aspect as well...

...So, too, many people in the United States saw the Helsinki Declaration as a betrayal of the cause of freedom in Eastern Europe and in the USSR...

...When the Ten Principles of the Helsinki Final Act were redrafted for incorporation into the new draft Soviet constitution, the phrase "including the freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief' (from Principle VII) was simply deleted—while the text of the remaining principles was left untouched...

...First, if Belgrade is, indeed, to review progress, the examination must be carried out by the West in a candid, forthright, and thorough manner, illustrated with specific reference to numerous individual examples...