1980: an overview

Madrid Conference

Various Ukrainian groups and former dissidents kept a high profile at this year's Madrid Conference to review implementation of the Helsinki Final Act. Their active participation and pre-conference preparations helped pave the way for Western delegations to severely criticize the Soviet Union for human-rights violations. In addition, Myroslaw Smorodsky, a public member of the official U.S. delegation to the talks, acted as a liaison between the delegation and the various Ukrainian groups assembled in Madrid. During the conference, issues such as Russification and the Soviet destruction of the Ukrainian Catholic Church were raised as a result of the efforts of the Ukrainian activists. Moreover, nearly all Western delegations cited individual cases of Ukrainian political prisoners during review of the so-called Basket III provisions of the accords.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, December 28, 1980, No. 31, Vol. LXXXVII

| Home Page |