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Review of Implementation of Basket II of the Helsinki Final Act

Witnesses

Hon. Deane R. Hinton

Assistant Secretary for Economic and Business Affairs

U.S. Department of State

J. Mishell George

Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for East-West Trade

Department of Commerce

James H. Giffen

President

Armco International, Inc.

This hearing, which Commissioner Jonathan B. Bingham chaired, was a joint meeting of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe and the Subcommittee on International Economic Policy and Trade of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. These organizations held this hearing after the establishment of a new strategy by the U.S. in its relations with the Soviet Union. More specifically, the month before this hearing, the CSCE adopted a resolution condemning the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the arrest and exile of Andrei Sakharov as blatant violations of the Helsinki Final Act. Commissioner Millicent Fenwick, who was also one of the sponsors of legislation creating the CSCE, proposed this resolution.

Likewise, the resolution called on the signatory states of the Final Act to join in such protest and undertake such sanctions against the former U.S.S.R. as may be available to them. The hearing itself, then, focused on the current status and prospects of U.S. commercial and economic relationships with the U.S.S.R. and Eastern European countries, implementation of Basket II, efforts to promote better implementation, and the impact the Soviet violation of the Helsinki accords in Afghanistan would have on the Madrid Review Session and the CSCE process as a whole.

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Articles

Helsinki Commission Advances Human Rights, Demands f...

Oct 19, 2023

By Shannon Simrell, Senior Policy Advisor Between October 2-13, 11 Helsinki Commission staff joined approximately 1,400 representatives of OSCE participating States (pS) and civil society representatives in Warsaw, Poland in an annual review of the human rights records of OSCE States. U.S. leadership highlighted demands for accountability from Russia and Belarus for their human rights […]

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Articles

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Press Releases

Helsinki Commission Chair and Co-Chair Lead Delegati...

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Hearings

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Press Releases

HEARING: NORTH MACEDONIA’S LEADERSHIP OF THE OSCE IN...

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Press Releases

U.S. Delegation to the OSCE PA presents Joint Statem...

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Press Releases

Steadfast Support for Ukraine: United States Delegat...

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Press Releases

Helsinki Commissioners Urge Austria to Deny Visas to...

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Articles

OSCE’s 2022 Ministerial Council in Lodz: Russia Isol...

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Articles

NATO Refocused, Europe Reinforced

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Digests

Helsinki Commission Digital Digest July 2022

Jul 29, 2022

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Press Releases

Co-Chairman Cohen Deplores Arrest of Ilya Yashin in ...

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