By its brutal military intervention in Afghanistan last December the Soviet Union violated at least 5 of the 10 principles of international behavior contained in the Helsinki Final Act. The invasion was followed by the banishment to internal exile of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Andrei Sakharov. a respected scientist who has won worldwide acclaim for his courage and devotion to the cause of human rights. Both the provisions of the Final Act relating to the reunification of families. and article 12 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which guarantees the right of emigration are intended to insure that all persons have the right to leave any country. including their own. This right still does not exist in the Soviet Union and many other countries. One has only to consider the case of Vladimir Kislik. a distinguished Soviet scientist who was denied the right to emigrate to Israel with his wife and son in 1973 and has been subjected to the most brutal harassment ever since. Like so many others. Kislik has endured beatings. interrogation. and even commitment to a mental hospital.
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emigrate emigration