That Is the background when we in the Council of Europe -once again study this issue. and I think -it will still follow us for a long time to come. Siue March 1971 almost 110.000 Jews have been able to leave the Soviet Union. Many more have applied for visas without receiving them. According to the -European and United Nations Conventions on Human Rights every man has a rlght to leave his own country. These conventions have been the basic douuments when previous Assemblies have demanded the right for Jews An diffare t COuntries to leave if theyvw1sh -to. However. we all know that this right is not respected in some countries around the world. not least the Soviet Union. Therefore it Is particularly heartening that. in spite of this. thousands of Jews during the last .3554 three years have got the opportunity to emigrate and to reunite with their families and friends. That achievement is stressed in the draft recommendation. where we ask the Assembly to note "with satisfaction that a considerable number of Soviet Jews have been granted permits to leave the Soviet Union since the beginning of 1971". Unfortunately. that does not mean that the pressures upon the Jews who stay. or are forced to stay. in the Soviet Union have been lessened in the last years. Still the authorities close down synagogues and forbid books and pamphlets in the Hebrew and Yiddish languages. Still Jews are barred from many professions and careers. Many of those who apply for visas are fired from their jobs. Young people of Jewish origin are often kept out of universities or hindered from beginning to study subjects they are qualified to. Nor has the socalled antiZionist campaign been weakened.
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emigrate visas