State Department History
State Department History: What are the Helsinki Accords?
Helsinki Final Act, 1975 – Helsinki Monitoring Groups
. . . To follow the progress of the USSR in implementing the human rights stipulations established in the Act, human rights activists set up Helsinki Monitoring Groups in the Soviet Union and across Europe.
Helsinki Monitoring Groups
The Moscow Helsinki Group: 30th Anniversary
. . . in the mid-1970s, during a low point of stagnation and political apathy in the Soviet Union, the Moscow Helsinki Group seized the inspiration of the 1975 Helsinki Final Act – which the Soviet government of Leonid Brezhnev saw as one of its major achievements – to highlight human rights violations in the Soviet Union and bring them to world attention by reporting on Soviet performance to the nations whose leaders signed the Final Act.
In June 1976, the group’s appeal to Rep. Millicent Fenwick (R-New Jersey) persuaded her to lead the creation of the U.S. Helsinki Commission, which included six senators, six congressmembers, and representatives from the State, Defense, and Commerce Departments. Gradually, an international network of Helsinki monitoring groups emerged throughout Europe.
Helsinki Commission – US Monitoring Group
Public Law 94-304, June 3, 1976, An Act to establish a Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe
The new law authorized the Helsinki Commission “to monitor the acts of the signatories which reflect compliance with or violation of the articles of the Final Act…with particular regard to the provisions relating to human rights and Cooperation in Humanitarian Fields.”
President Ronald Reagan created a new position for her:
After leaving the House of Representatives following the 1982 election, Fenwick was appointed by President Ronald Reagan as United States Ambassador to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in Rome, Italy. [Wiki]
Reagan: 1982 Speech to the British Parliament
Reagan: 1982 Established the National Endowment for Democracy (NED)
