Helsinki << HEHL sihng kee or hehl SIHNG kee >> Accords consist of several international agreements reached by the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe (CSCE) in the 1970’s and 1980’s. The CSCE is now known as the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe . The first and most important of the accords pledged increased cooperation between the nations of Eastern and Western Europe. The chief agreement was signed in Helsinki, Finland, on Aug. 1, 1975, by Canada, the United States, the Soviet Union, and the 32 other members of the CSCE, almost all of which were European countries.
The official name of the chief agreement is the Final Act of the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe. The Final Act covered many issues. But its main goal was to reduce international tensions associated with the Cold War. The act resulted in the Western countries’ finally recognizing Eastern European boundaries that had been set up after World War II ended in 1945. In addition, all signers promised to respect human rights, including their citizens’ freedoms of thought and religion. The signers also agreed to increase economic and cultural cooperation, to protect the rights of journalists, and to encourage educational exchanges.
After the Final Act was signed, each side charged that the other routinely violated its provisions. For example, the Soviet Union claimed that Western governments’ support for Soviet Jews who opposed certain Soviet laws violated a provision against one country’s interfering in the internal affairs of another. The Western countries claimed that the same provision prohibited the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979.
The Final Act led to increased popular demand for the exercise of human rights in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. This demand became a major cause of the democratic revolutions that brought non-Communist governments to power in many Eastern European nations in 1989 and the early 1990’s. The demand also helped bring the Soviet Communist Party’s fall from power in August 1991. These developments contributed to a sharp improvement in Western countries’ relations with Eastern European nations—and with the Soviet Union before it broke up in late 1991.
