Helsinki Accords

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For the set of principles on human experimentation, see Declaration of Helsinki.

The Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, known as the Helsinki Final Act, Helsinki Accords or Helsinki Declaration, was the final act of the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe held in Helsinki, Finland in August, 1975 between the United States and Canada, the Soviet Union and the countries of Europe (including Turkey but excluding Albania and Andorra). It was signed by 35 countries.

The main points enumerated in the act were:

Respect for sovereignty
Renunciation of the use of force
The inviolability of frontiers
Territorial integrity of states
Recognition of USSR's control of Eastern Europe
Peaceful settlement of disputes
Non-intervention in internal affairs
Respect for human rights
Equal rights and self-determination of peoples
Co-operation among states
Fulfillment in good faith of obligations under international law

The document was seen both as a significant step toward reducing Cold War tensions and as a major diplomatic boost for the Soviet Union at the time, due to its clauses on the inviolability of national borders and respect for territorial integrity, which recognized for the first time USSR's territorial gains in Eastern Europe during the Second World War.

However, the civil rights portion of the agreement provided the basis for the work of the Moscow Helsinki Group, an independent non-governmental organization created to monitor compliance to the Helsinki Accords (which evolved into several regional committees, eventually forming the International Helsinki Federation and Human Rights Watch). While these provisions applied to all signatories, the focus of attention was on their application to the Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact allies, including Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Romania.

Though the West recognized for the first time Soviet control of Eastern Europe, Soviet recognition of universal human rights would lead in part to the unravelling of the Soviet empire.