Those promises have been a beacon of hope to millions in the Soviet Union. Natan Shcharansky. a founding member of the Helsinki Watch Group. said the biggest disappointment for Soviet political prisoners came when the 1983 Helsinki Review Conference in Madrid renewed the accords despite the Soviets utter disregard of their human rights commitments. While we must protect the progress that has been made in Soviet emigration policies. we must not lose sight of the reasons why people want to emigrate in the first place. Nor must we forget our obligation to those millions of Soviet citizens. Jewish and nonJewish. who may not emigrate but who deserve the freedoms they were promised at Helsinki. There are some 2 million Jews in the Soviet Union. Of these. an estimated one quarter want to emigrate. What about the rest? What about Sakharov and Grigoryants and the other dissidents? In May 1986. just a few months after his release. Natan Shcharansky addressed the annual March for Soviet Jewry in New York. He urged the United States to use its economic and political leverage to move the Soviets toward compliance with the whole range of their commitments under the Helsinki Final Act. not just the emigration clauses. He remembered the dissidents. who work for change within the Soviet Union. "As a Zionist and a Jew. I support universal justice. the call from Sinai.
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emigrate emigration