Human Rights in The Soviet Union - Human Rights Movement in The Soviet Union

Human Rights Movement in The Soviet Union

  • The Action Group for the Defence of Civil rights in the USSR was founded by Soviet dissidents in May 1969. The organization petitioned on behalf of the victims of Soviet repression. It was dissolved after the arrest and trial of its leading member Peter Yakir.
  • In November 1970, the Committee on Human Rights in the USSR was founded by Andrei Sakharov and other Soviet dissidents to publicize Soviet violations of human rights.
  • The USSR's section of Amnesty International was founded on October 6, 1973 by 11 Moscow intellectuals and was registered in September 1974 by the Amnesty International Secretariat in London.
  • The Moscow Helsinki Group was founded in 1976 to monitor the Soviet Union's compliance with the Helsinki Final Act of 1975 that included clauses calling for the recognition of universal human rights.
  • The Ukrainian Helsinki Group was founded in November 1976 to monitor human rights in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. The group was active until 1981, when all members were jailed.

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