I am glad to be able to participate in the debate on this motion.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948, proclaims unequivocally a number of rights which are of particular relevance to this motion. These include the right to freedom of religion, the right to leave one's country and the right to enjoy one's human rights without discrimination. This declaration is one of the basic instruments setting out the human rights and fundamental freedoms which the 35 CSCE participating states committed themselves to respecting when at Helsinki they signed the Final Act of the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe.
The Helsinki Final Act and the concluding document of the Madrid meeting are not treaties and do not legally bind the 35 signatories, which include all the states of Europe, with the exception of Albania, together with the United States and Canada. They represent, however, a political commitment by these states to implement in full the provisions of these documents and give the other participating states the right to review the extent to which this commitment is being honoured.
In the area of human rights the Final Act provides that the participating states will respect human rights and fundamental freedoms. As the motion recalls, it mentions specifically freedom of religion and commits the participating states to recognising and respecting the freedom of the individual to profess and practise religion, either alone or in community with others. The signatories undertook to encourage the effective exercise of human rights and freedoms and at Madrid they stressed their determination to assure constant and tangible progress in this field.
The Final Act also devotes a lot of attention to the question of human contacts, particularly the reunification of families and marriages between citizens of different states. The participating states commit themselves to dealing in a positive and humanitarian spirit with applications from people who wish to be reunited with members of their family. At Madrid it was agreed, specifically, to decide on such applications "in normal practice, within six months".
The extent to which the Soviet Union has complied with the commitments it adopted in the CSCE process has varied somewhat over the years since 1975, but it is clear that at no time has its implementation of the Final Act been entirely satisfactory. In the early eighties, in particular, the Soviet record in the area of human contacts deteriorated rapidly. While the period immediately following the signature of the Final Act has seen increasing numbers of Jews being permitted to leave the Soviet Union each year, the numbers declined sharply after 1979, when emigration peaked at 51,000. By comparison, the 1986 figure was only 914. The decline in Jewish emigration was coupled with repression of persons who had applied for exit visas and the continued denial of the possibility for Jews to give expression to their particular culture. In other areas too the provisions of the Helsinki and Madrid documents were violated — for instance, through the systematic suppression of groups set up to monitor their implementation and the repression of religious believers.
As Senator Norris stressed when he introduced the motion and as was mentioned by other Senators, in particular Senator Murphy, Senator Connor and Senator Ryan, there have been considerable improvements in the Soviet record in the human rights field. It is particularly important that we would set this on record, that we would recognise it and that, particularly at this time and in the climate that now prevails in the Soviet Government, we should place on record our aknowledgement of those improvements. Significant numbers of political prisoners have been released and there has been a new, though limited, freedom of expression that would not have been possible in the past. Since January 1987 the number of visas issued to enable Jews to leave the Soviet Union has increased substantially. Last year, they numbered just over 8,000, while in the first nine months of this year approximately 11,500 have been issued. There are reports that reforms in legislation, at present in preparation, will make emigration somewhat easier.
These developments, and the prospect of reforms in Soviet society after the 29th Conference of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, are encouraging, but there remains ample scope for concern at the current situation. The most recent figures for emigration are still well below those prevailing throughout the seventies, and are small compared to the number of Soviet Jews who wish to leave the country. Regulations introduced in 1987 limit emigration to those who have a direct relative abroad, although there are indications that for the present these are not being fully enforced.
Many persons have had visas denied to them on state security grounds. In many cases the act of applying for permission to leave leads directly to discrimination against not only the applicants but their families as well. Continued harassment and restrictions on the use of Hebrew, as mentioned by Senators Norris, Harte, Murphy and others, makes it difficult for Jews to practise their religion and pursue their culture. The anti-Semitic sentiments of such nationalist groups as "Pamyat" are disturbing.
Ireland, as well as our partners in the Twelve and other CSCE participating states, has availed of the opportunities offered by CSCE meetings to express our concern at the deficiencies in Soviet implementation of the Helsinki and Madrid provisions, most recently at the review meeting which has been taking place in Vienna since November 1986.
Together with our partners in the Twelve, we have also sought to strengthen significantly the commitments undertaken at Helsinki and Madrid by making specific and detailed proposals for measures that the participating states must take to ensure the freedom of the individual to profess and practise religion.
These measures include the right of religious communities to establish freely accessible places of worship, to organise themselves according to their own institutional structure and to solicit and receive financial contributions. States would also commit themselves to respect the right of everyone to give and receive religious education in the language of their choice and to respect the liberty of parents to ensure the religious and moral education of their children in conformity with their own convictions.
The Twelve have also made proposals aimed at strengthening the provisions relating to travel for family meetings, family reunification and marriage, and where there is an urgent humanitarian reason. The Twelve, including Ireland, have also co-sponsored proposals aimed at preventing the abuse of national security grounds for restricting travel and ensuring that any restrictions imposed on these grounds will be for as short a period as possible.
The Vienna meeting has not yet concluded and negotiations on these and other proposals are continuing. However, it is expected that the Vienna Concluding Document will lead to increased commitments by the participating states in these and other areas which are of particular relevance to this motion.
I have already mentioned that the Helsinki Final Act confers on all participating states a right to review the way in which a particular state has implemented its commitments. To date this review has mainly been conducted in the context of one of the three main follow-up meetings held at Belgrade, Madrid and currently, Vienna. The Twelve, and othe CSCE participating states, consider however, that there is scope for improving the procedures for reviewing implementation of the provisions relating to human rights and fundamental freedoms and human contacts. With this in mind, we co-sponsored a proposal aimed at strengthening these procedures. This would allow a state to make representations on particular situation and cases to the state concerned and to bring them to the attention of all the 35 participating states. These cases could also be raised at the normal CSCE review meetings as well as at the annual sessions of a conference on the Human Dimension, which will be attended by all CSCE participating states. It is expected that the first session of the conference will take place next year in Paris. The Twelve hope that this increased emphasis on the human dimension will lead to a more thorough implementation by all states of their commitments to human rights and human contacts.
The appropriate framework in which to raise human rights issues, such as the case of Raoul Wallenberg, referred to by Senators Norris, Murphy and Connor is the CSCE. This is the context in which the Government raises such issues.
In conclusion, I would like to say that the subject of this motion is a matter for continued concern to us and one on which we have made our views known to the Soviet authorities, both bilaterally and through the Twelve. We will continue to press, by appropriate means, for the full implementation of the commitments entered into at Helsinki and Madrid, and about to be undertaken at Vienna, so that Soviet Jews and all Soviet citizens may enjoy their fundamental rights.