In some instances. the Soviet Government goes beyond the principle of the reunion of families and endorses the principle of the reunion of entire ethnic groups. Spaniards. RussoPoles. and Greeks have been allowed to emigrate. It is regrettable. however. to note that while the Soviet Government has been sympatheticaly disposed to the principle of reunion of families and to some ethnic groups. it has made an exception in the case of Soviet Jews. This inconsistency between general policy and their position with regard to Soviet Jews is certainly a cause for embarrassment to the Soviet Union. We have a situation. then. in which the Soviet Union has obligated itself in a variety of ways to international standards which require it to give effect to the right to leave and return. and. it has accorded recognition to the humanitarian principle of reunion of families and even ethnic groups. Hence. it appears that people who seek to emigrate are merely seeking implementation of this legal and moral right. Yet. in spite of these obligations. the Soviet Unions latest official pronouncement of October 6. 1971. relative to the right to leave is that emigration is a privilege. a decision to be made by the state. not a right of the individual. Soviet physicist. Andrei Sakharov. has recently spoken out in favor of a freeemigration policy. Deploring the refusal to let Russians emigrate. Sakharov says that the right to leave must exist for those who wish to use it. because the existence of such a right is "an essential condition for spiritual freedom for everyone." And. he is right. In this context.
Keywords matched
emigrate emigration