Speaker. the Soviet Union. along with the United States and 33 other nations. signed the Final Act of the Helsinki Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe in 1975. The Soviets agreed to respect the human rights and fundamental freedoms of their citizens. Also by reference to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. they also agreed to guarantee the fundamental right to emigrate. However. not only have the Soviets not kept their agreement. but they have singled out members of the Helsinki Watch Groups for particular harassment. The Ukrainian Helsinki Group was founded in 1976. a year after the Moscow Group. to monitor the Soviet Governments compliance with the human rights clauses of the Helsinki Accords. The Helsinki Group demands that the Government respect such fundamental rights of the individual as freedom of religion. expression. and movement. It also calls for the Government to support the Ukrainians right to selfdetermination. the signatories to the Helsinki Final Act having agreed to "respect the equal rights of peoples and their right to selfdetermination." Mykola Horbal. a Ukrainian poet and a member of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group. has been unjustly imprisoned in the Soviet Union because of his application for emigration to the United States and his participation in the Helsinki Group. Mr. Horbal. who is married and has one son. was arrested by the Soviets in 1970 for circulating a poem he had written. That arrest occurred shortly after he had received his affidavit to emigrate to the United States. Mr. Horbal was sentenced to 5 years in a labor camp and 2 years in internal exile.
Keywords matched
emigrate emigration