Reagan's Support for Human Rights
Annotation
By the summer of 1988, Mikhail Gorbachev's reform policies, glasnost' (openness) and perestroika (restructuring), had begun to change the political landscape of the Soviet Union. When President Ronald Reagan visited Moscow in the summer of 1988 for a political summit, he gave a series of speeches applauding the progress of Soviet reforms but also demanding further achievements. In this speech to a group of Soviet political dissidents, President Reagan presented the three most important human rights for future progress: freedoms of religion, speech, and travel. In each case, Reagan pointed to the inclusion of these freedoms in the Helsinki Declaration, which the Soviet Union had signed in 1975. In this way, the President was not asking for innovations in the Soviet Union, but instead calling for Soviet compliance with a longstanding international treaty.
Text
Remarks to Soviet Dissidents at Spaso House in Moscow
May 30, 1988
Well, thank you all, and welcome to Spaso House. After the discussions we've just had I
thought it might be appropriate for me to begin by letting you know why I so wanted this
meeting to take place. You see, I wanted to convey to you that you have the prayers and
support of the American people, indeed of people throughout the world. I wanted to
convey this support to you that you might in turn convey it to others so that all those
working for human rights throughout this vast land, from the Urals to Kamchatka, from
the Laptev Sea to the Caspian, might be encouraged and take heart.
In one capacity, of course, I speak as a head of government. The United States views
human rights as fundamental, absolutely fundamental to our relationship with the Soviet
Union and all nations. From the outset of our administration, we've stressed that an
essential element in improving relations between the United States and the Soviet Union
is human rights and Soviet compliance with international covenants on human rights.
There have been hopeful signs; indeed, I believe this a hopeful time for your nation.
Over the past 3 years more than 300 political and religious prisoners have been released
from labor camps. Fewer dissidents and believers have been put in prisons and mental
hospitals. And in recent months, more people have been permitted to emigrate or reunite
with their families. The United States applauds these changes, yet the basic standards that
the Soviet Union agreed to almost 13 years ago in the Helsinki accords, or a generation
ago in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, still need to be met. If I may, I'd like
to share with you the main aims of our human rights agenda during this summit meeting
here in Moscow.
Freedom of religion -- in the words of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
``Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion.'' I'm hopeful the
Soviet Government will permit all the peoples of the Soviet Union to worship their
creator as they themselves see fit, in liberty.
Freedom of speech -- again in the words of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
``Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression.'' It is my fervent hope for
you and your country that there will soon come a day when no one need fear prison for
offenses that involve nothing more than the spoken or written word.
Freedom of travel -- I've told the General Secretary how heartened we are that during the
past year the number of those permitted to emigrate has risen. We're encouraged as well
that the number of those permitted to leave for short trips, often family visits, has gone
up. And yet the words of the Universal Declaration go beyond these steps: ``Everyone
has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his own country.'' It
is our hope that soon there will be complete freedom of travel.
In particular, I've noted in my talks here the many who have been denied the right to
emigrate on the grounds that they held secret knowledge, even though their secret work
had ended years before and their so-called secrets had long since become either public
knowledge or obsolete. Such cases must be rationally reviewed.
And finally, institutional changes to make progress permanent. I've come to Moscow
with this human rights agenda because, as I suggested, it is our belief that this is a
moment of hope. The new Soviet leaders appear to grasp the connection between certain
freedoms and economic growth. The freedom to keep the fruits of one's own labor, for
example, is a freedom that the present reforms seem to be enlarging. We hope that one
freedom will lead to another and another; that the Soviet Government will understand
that it is the individual who is always the source of economic creativity, the inquiring
mind that produces a technical breakthrough, the imagination that conceives of new
products and markets; and that in order for the individual to create, he must have a sense
of just that -- his own individuality, his own self-worth. He must sense that others respect
him and, yes, that his nation respects him -- respects him enough to grant him all his
human rights. This, as I said, is our hope; yet whatever the future may bring, the
commitment of the United States will nevertheless remain unshakable on human rights.
On the fundamental dignity of the human person, there can be no relenting, for now we
must work for more, always more.
And here I would like to speak to you not as a head of government but as a man, a fellow
human being. I came here hoping to do what I could to give you strength. Yet I already
know it is you who have strengthened me, you who have given me a message to carry
back. While we press for human rights through diplomatic channels, you press with your
very lives, day in, day out, year after year, risking your jobs, your homes, your all.
If I may, I want to give you one thought from my heart. Coming here, being with you,
looking into your faces, I have to believe that the history of this troubled century will
indeed be redeemed in the eyes of God and man, and that freedom will truly come to all.
For what injustice can withstand your strength, and what can conquer your prayers? And
so, I say with Pushkin: ``It's time my friend, it's time. The heart begs for peace, the days
fly past, it's time, my friend, it's time.''
Could I play a little trick on you and say something that isn't written here? Sometimes
when I'm faced with an unbeliever, an atheist, I am tempted to invite him to the greatest
gourmet dinner that one could ever serve and, when we finished eating that magnificent
dinner, to ask him if he believes there's a cook. Thank you all, and God bless you.
Note: The President spoke at 4:29 p.m. in the ballroom at the U.S. Ambassador's
residence.
Credits
Ronald Reagan, "Remarks to Soviet Dissidents at Spaso House," Moscow, Soviet Union, May 30, 1988, Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, Public Papers, Reagan Library (accessed May 15, 2008).