Helsinki Accords: Declaration on Human Rights

The Helsinki Declaration of August 1, 1975 was a turning point in Cold War relations inside European borders. The Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact countries celebrated the acknowledgment of their national boundaries; a desired goal since the end of World War II. West European democracies celebrated the Warsaw Pact countries' willingness to adopt ten major points of international diplomacy. One of the most pivotal of these points was the seventh clause of the treaty, an agreement to uphold human rights. Each East European country promised to protect minority rights, allow religious worship, and grant political and economic freedom for all of their citizens. Each country published the Helsinki Declaration at home, which created a promise of wide reforms if the countries honored this agreement. As citizens throughout Eastern Europe petitioned for their new human rights, a widespread dissident movement against the Communist Parties of Eastern Europe emerged, including the arrival of the Charter 77 in Czechoslovakia.