Speech #920137826

It is in this spirit that I ask for your consideration on this matter. Let me enumerate four specific areas of concern. In the area of emigration. the following legal rights seem to hold. The U.S.S.R. voted for Article 13/3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. which states that "Everyone has the right to leave any country. including his own and to return to his country." The Soviet Union signed the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. in which Article 12/2 states the doctrine that "everyone shall be free to leave any country including his own." The same right is guaranteed by the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. this was ratified by the Supreme Soviet. Not only. In fact. has the Soviet Union signed its name to these documents of International law. but its leaders have reaffirmed them verbally and in writing. to the United Nations and in policy statements. You reported to the United Nations. for example. that unless there was a case of an impending court sentence. jail term. or army service. there were no restrictions against a Soviet citizen emigrating for the purpose of reunification of families. In 1966 in a statement made in Paris. France. and subsequently printed in both Pravda and Izvestia. Premier Kosygin noted that "the door is open and no problem exists here." I am puzzled by what seems to be evidence to the contrary. Certainly emigration restrictions have eased in the past several months but the openness guaranteed by the laws cited above simply does not appear to be a reality. Countless letters and proclamations have been received at the United Nations. in the United States. and in Israel expressing the desire of Soviet Jews to leave and the barriers preventing them from doing so: "I apply to you in an open letter. because to my repeated applications to the Soviet authoritles with the request to permit me to emlgrate to my relatives in Israel. I have been receiving refusals. which in accordance with the accepted order. were given orally. by telephone. without any stated reasons for the refusal nor any indication of the identity of the persons who made these decisions" goes a letter by a Russian woman in October 1966. very much characteristic of the scores I have read. that clearly show violations of the laws listed above.