Helsinki Conference

Helsinki Conference (30 July-1 Aug. 1975) The concluding meeting in a series of conferences held since 1973 in an attempt to reduce political tensions in Europe. It was attended by political leaders from thirty-five nations, with representatives from the Communist Eastern European states, Western Europe, the USA, and Canada. The concluding Helsinki Final Act contained three central commitments. First, it outlined a number of ways to prevent accidental confrontations between Eastern and Western Europe, i.e. between the Warsaw Pact and NATO. Second, it proposed a series of measures for economic and technological cooperation. Third, it obliged its participants to accept international conventions on human rights, and generally to promote better understanding between the countries. The conference, and its offspring, the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, acknowledged a role for universal human rights in domestic and international affairs. It represented a major breakthrough in communication between East and West, even if from 1979 Cold War tensions increased again after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

Charter '77; Sakharov, Andrey Dimitrievich; disarmament