International Humanitarian Law Commons^™

United States Compliance With The Helsinki Final Act: The Treatment Of Aliens, David Carliner

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

A casualty, sorely if not fatally wounded, of the Soviet armed intervention in Afghanistan is the once widely-touted Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe concluded in Helsinki on August 1, 1975. The Conference was originally proposed by the Soviet Union in the 1950's in order to promote its perceived security interest in Europe and to legitimize its territorial boundaries in Eastern Europe. Though initially opposed to the idea, the United States finally supported it in 1972 as a means of promoting the "security that would come from an expansion of cooperation between East and West …

Introduction, William W. Bishop, Jr.

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

This issue of the Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law is a symposium devoted to human rights aspects of the Helsinki Final Act. The Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe was convened in Helsinki July 3, 1973. After sessions there and in Geneva, all European states, both Western and Eastern (except Albania), took part, as did also the United States and Canada. On August 1, 1975, the Final Act of the Conference was signed at Helsinki by thirty-five nations. Its provisions had been laboriously arrived at by consensus rather than by voting. Early pressures for such a conference had come …

The Approach Of The Helsinki Declaration To Human Rights, Antonio Cassese

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The purpose of this paper is to outline briefly the basic attitude toward human rights evidenced in the Helsinki Declaration. By way of introduction, I shall describe summarily how perceptions of human rights have evolved in the United Nations since the adoption of the Charter in 1945. It is in this context that the novelty of the Helsinki exercise can be viewed and assessed.

There are many ways of analyzing and appraising United Nations action in the field of human rights over the years. This complex phenomenon can be divided into various stages, according to prevailing political philosophy. Three phases …

Charter 77 In Czechoslovakia And The International Protection Of Human Rights, Roger Errera

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Charter 77 was published in Prague in early January, 1977. At that time the document contained 240 signatures, a number which increased by 1977 to over 600. This Charter marked the beginning of a new period in the political history of Czechoslovakia, a period of public affirmation of fundamental liberties. It is useful to recall briefly reactions to the publication of this document in the East and the West, and to analyze its profound significance. It is also important to examine the major events that have taken place since 1977 and the inspiration which Charter 77 derived from the United …

Freedom Of Transnational Movement: The Helsinki Accord And Beyond, Daniel C. Turack

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Initial formal evaluation of the implementation of the Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe signed at Helsinki on August 1, 1975, [hereinafter Helsinki Accord] took place at a 35-nation conference in Belgrade during the period from October 4, 1977, to March 9, 1978. The Helsinki Accord, though not a treaty, sets forth various principles of governmental conduct concerning freedom of transnational movement. The Accord morally commits participating states to implement certain measures either domestically or with other states, to respect, promote, and encourage human rights and fundamental freedoms.

The Helsinki Accord is divided into three …

The "Polaroid Experiment" In South Africa--A Progress Report, Beryl Unterhalter

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The business activities of the Polaroid Company in South Africa came under attack in October of 1970, when a small group of Polaroid workers who called themselves the Polaroid Revolutionary Workers' Movement received wide publicity for their protests concerning an alleged anomaly in the company's annual report. According to the Polaroid Revolutionary Workers' Movement, the report, while alluding to the company's role in combating racism and in providing equal opportunities for all employees, described its expanding field of operations and increased profits in South Africa, a country in which racial discrimination is widespread. The Movement further pointed out that part …

The Genocide Convention And The Constitution, Myres S. Mcdougal, Richard Arens

Vanderbilt Law Review

What is traditional for common crimes can scarcely be oppressive innovation for mass-murder. Even freedom of communication is not, furthermore, an absolute in democratic preference: security and human decency must likewise have their place.

It is no little irony that argument must be made in support of a convention to suppress genocide. "The spectacle," writes a contemporary journal of opinion, "of modern man explaining his right to existence is an odd one." The Genocide Convention is but one of many interrelated measures in a world-wide program to secure peace and respect for the dignity of the individual human being. Rational …