A joint resolution commemorating the 10th anniversary of the signing of the Helsinki Final Act.
PL 99-79 (S.J.Res.180), enacted 08/02/1985

99 STAT. 180 
PUBLIC LAW 99-79—AUG. 2, 1985 
Public Law 99-79 
99th Congress 
Joint Resolution 
Aug. 2, 1985 
[S.J. Res. 180] 
Commemorating the tenth anniversary of the signing of the Helsinki Final Act. 
Whereas, on August 1, 1975, the United States joined thirty-four 
other nations, including the Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact 
states, as signatories to the Final Act of the Conference on Secu-
rity and Cooperation in Europe, known as the Helsinki Final Act, 
and 
Whereas, the Final Act is a balanced document incorporating provi-
sions concerning human rights and fundamental freedoms, mili-
tary security, cooperation in the fields of economic, scientific, 
cultural and educational affairs, free flow of information, and 
humanitarian affairs, and 
Whereas, the Helsinki process has evolved into the primary tool of 
East-West human rights diplomacy and continues to serve as a 
beacon of hope to victims of oppression in the Soviet Union and 
Eastern Europe, and 
Whereas, the United States, our NATO Allies and a number of 
neutral and nonaligned countries have documented and protested 
many serious violations of the human rights and human contacts 
provisions of the Final Act by the Soviet Union and other Warsaw 
Pact states, and 
Whereas, the Soviet Union displays contempt for basic civil and 
political rights, such as freedom of thought, conscience, religion 
and belief; confines in prisons, labor camps and psychiatric 
institutions or internally exiles hundreds of citizens who have 
sought to know and act upon their rights, among them thirty-
seven imprisoned members of Helsinki monitoring groups, and 
Whereas, the Soviet Union callously disregards its pledge to facili-
tate human contacts and has drastically reduced the numbers of 
Soviet citizens permitted to emigrate; has consistently denied exit 
permission to Soviet citizens married to United States citizens and 
to other individuals who have claims to United States citizenship; 
and deliberately impedes the East-West flow of information by 
jamming Western radio broadcasts, and 
Wliereas, disregard for human rights also is evident in the other 
Warsaw Pact states of Eastern Europe, and 
Whereas, inter alia, Bulgaria maintains virtually total control over 
the life of its people and recently has engaged in a campaign of 
forcible assimilation aimed at the Turkish minority population; 
Czechoslovakia harshly represses independent social, political, 
religious, minority and cultural expression and persecutes mem-
bers of Charter '77 and VONS (Committee for the Defense of the 
Unjustly Persecuted); The German Democratic Republic enforces 
PUBLIC LAW 99-79—AUG. 2, 1985 
99 STAT. 181 
a restrictive emigration policy; Hungary continually harjasses 
citizens who publish or possess unofficial material; Poland outlaws 
the Solidarity Union, harasses and prosecutes Solidarity and 
human rights advocates and currently imprisons over two hun-
dred persons for exercising their human and workers' rights; 
Romania maintains a repressive internal regime and seriously 
violates the freedoms of conscience, expression and association, as 
well as religious liberty and minority rights, and 
Whereas, meetings of Helsinki signatoiy states present impoirtant 
opportunities for Western democracies to call the Soviet Union 
and its allies to account for these human rights violations, and 
Whereas, at the recent Ottawa Human Rights Experts Meeting of 
Helsinki signatory states. East Bloc human rights violations were 
raised and deplored by United States Ambassador Richard 
Schifter and by other Western and Neutral envoys on behjilf of 
their respective states, and 
Whereas, United States Secretary of State George P. Shultz will 
lead the United States Delegation to the tenth anniveirsary 
commemoration of the signing of the Final Act: Now, therefore, be 
it 
Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United 
States of America in Congress assembled, That— 
Human rights. 
(1) the Congress strongly reaffirms the human rights prin-
ciples and humanitarian provisions of the Helsinki Final Act 
and the Madrid Concluding Document; 
(2) the Congress recognizes and condemns continued East Bloc 
violations of international obligations under the United Nations 
Charter, the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, the Hel- 
59 Stat. I03i. 
sinki Final Act, the Madrid Concluding Document, and other 
relevant international instruments; 
(3) the Congress requests that the President of the United 
States direct the United States Department of State to convey to 
the Soviet Union and its allies the United States deep and 
abiding human rights concerns; 
(4) the Congress urges the President to direct the United 
States Department of State to take full advantage of the 
opportunities provided by all upcoming meetings of Helsinki 
signatory states to call the Soviet Union and its allies to account 
for ongoing human rights violations and to work constructively 
99 STAT. 182 
PUBLIC LAW 99-79—AUG. 2, 1985 
with the governments of the other Western democracies to 
promote human rights progress in the Eastern signatory states; 
and 
(5) the Congress calls upon the President to use every oppor-
tunity to stress the inherent link—explicitly stated in the Hel-
sinki Final Act and the Madrid Concluding Document—between 
respect for human rights and the achievement of lasting peace. 
Approved August 2, 1985. 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY—S.J. Res. 180: 
CONGRESSIONAL RECORD, Vol. 131 (1985): 
July 29, considered and passed Senate. 
July 30, considered and passed House.