Negotiating Human Rights

Christina Isajiw's book Negotiating Human Rights: In Defence of Dissidents during the Soviet Era. A Memoir chronicles the activities of the Human Rights Commission (HRC) of the World Congress of Free Ukrainians (WCFU) during the 1970s and 1980s, particularly this NGO's defense of Ukrainian dissidents and human rights activists within the context of the so-called Helsinki Process that followed the signing of the Helsinki Accords in 1975. The author recounts the courage and dedication of human rights activists in the former USSR and the efforts on the part of their supporters in the West to lobby Western governments to pressure the political establishments of the USSR and other Eastern bloc countries to implement the human rights provisions of the Helsinki Final Act. In describing the many international conferences and intergovernmental negotiations that provided the framework for these activities, the author provides insight into the evolution of the Helsinki Process and the development of Western commitment to human rights, all of which contributed to the revolutionary changes in Eastern Europe of the late 1980s and early 1990s. The book includes a CD with relevant documentation.