Conference examines past and future of Ukrainian World Congress (08/10/97)

Conference examines past and future of Ukrainian World Congress

by Andrij Kudla Wynnyckyj
Toronto Press Bureau

TORONTO - The Canadian branch of the Shevchenko Scientific Society (NTSh) held a mini-conference on the past and future of the Ukrainian World Congress (UWC, formerly the World Congress of Free Ukrainians, or WCFU) that coincided with the UWC presidium's plenary meetings.

About 75 people gathered on May 31 at the Ukrainian Canadian Art Foundation's gallery to hear the presentations of three panelists.

Christina Isajiw spoke on the topic "The Political Activism of the WCFU in Defense of Ukrainian Human Rights." Ms. Isajiw, a former executive director of the WCFU's Human Rights Commission, is currently involved with the agency now revived as the Commission on Human and Civil Rights.

At the outset, Ms. Isajiw lamented the lack of archival materials covering the genesis of the Human Rights Commission (HRC), 1969-1973, but drew on reports by the late Canadian Sen. Paul Yuzyk and Dr. Mykhailo Sosnovsky, an editor of the Svoboda at the time, that were prepared in 1974.

She noted that until 1975 the effort experienced serious difficulties. She mentioned the failure to establish a foothold at the U.N. during the WCFU's term in New York City following the organization's second congress, and the failure of the Canadian-based International Commission on Human Rights (whose honorary chairman was former Canadian Prime Minister John Diefenbaker) to perform to expectations.

Ms. Isajiw described how a systematic effort of cooperation with the London-based Amnesty International and Chronicle of Current Events, as well as Munich-based information gathering agencies (such as the Digest of the Soviet Press and Radio Free Europe) allowed the WCFU's nascent HRC to establish a credible database on repressions against Ukrainian dissidents.

Ms. Isajiw said 1975 was a banner year for the WCFU, which conducted campaigns in defense of religious freedom in the USSR and in defense of women's activists, coinciding with the International Year of the Woman. Oddly, Ms. Isajiw made only glancing mention of that year's signing of the Helsinki Accords as a factor providing a great impetus for Soviet human rights monitoring.

Ms. Isajiw described the late 1970s as a period of burgeoning interest in the defense of dissidents, and said the HRC made a concerted effort to coordinate the various "In Defense of" committees that sprang up to highlight the causes of Valentyn Moroz, Levko Lukianenko and Leonid Pliushch. She also said the HRC worked with the International Association of Mathematicians in defense of Mr. Pliushch.

Ms. Isajiw said international events allowed the HRC to focus its activities effectively, and allowed activists to hone their skills in lobbying. Notable Venues for HRC's effort were Mexico City's International Women's Conference in 1975, the "Habitat" conference on housing in Vancouver, 1976, and the second Helsinki review conference in Madrid, 1980.

Ms. Isajiw listed the HRC's publication of popular brochures and booklets on topics such as Soviet persecution of religion, material in defense of the Ukrainian Helsinki Monitoring Group (1980, with two re-releases in 1981 and 1985), as well as those in defense of individuals such as the Sichko and Romaniuk families.

Ms. Isajiw described 1980-1985 as the second period of heightened HRC activism. The release to the West of dissidents such as Mr. Pliushch, Nina Strokata and Sviatoslav Karavansky, Nadia Svitlychna and Petro Grigorenko, particularly after the formation of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group's External Representation, both galvanized the human rights effort in the Ukrainian community and resulted in cooperation with other ethnic groups.

Ms. Isajiw noted that lobbying efforts were vastly more successful in the U.S. Congress thanks to the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (known as the "Helsinki Commission").

Ms. Isajiw listed Ukrainian agencies with which the HRC cooperated including Americans for Human Rights in Ukraine, Smoloskyp, the information bureaus of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America, and various students' committees.

The HRC activist noted that human rights efforts in Canada were of a considerably smaller scale, and different in nature. She characterized the Canadian government's response in the late 1970s as "decidedly unenthusiastic." She said the Ministry of External Affairs refused to heed the input of NGOs on the subject, and had a noticeable bias against ethnic groups pushing the issue.

Ms. Isajiw described an international conference in 1980 at Ottawa's Chateau Laurier Hotel, where U.S. delegates offered assistance and encouragement, and the Canadian hosts did their best to impede the HRC's activism at every turn.

Efforts to establish a standing parliamentary committee in Canada similar to its counterpart in the U.S., initiated in September 1981, were not heeded until 1986, when External Affairs Minister Joe Clark compromised and set up a human rights monitoring body within his ministry, thanks in part to backing from the mainstream media.

Ms. Isajiw said the height of the HRC's influence came in May 1986, when the U.S. State Department proposed that the agency prepare a document on the persecution of the Ukrainian Catholic Church by the Soviet regime, which was published the following year. Ms. Isajiw offered a renewed expression of thanks to Ivan Hvat, a researcher at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in Munich, for his assistance in this work.

In more general terms, Ms. Isajiw said the HRC is most indebted to the contributions made by the late Sen. Yuzyk, Prof. Bohdan Bociurkiw, the late Andrij Bandera and the late Justice Walter Tarnopolsky. The HRC activist singled out Oleksandra Kovalska, in attendance that day, for providing a much needed element of stability when internal conflicts threatened the commission's existence, and for her ongoing dedication to the HRC's cause.

The second speaker that afternoon was former WCFU President Peter Savaryn, who addressed the question "Has the WCFU/UWC Dealt Effectively with the Responsibilities Placed on it by the Ukrainian Community outside Ukraine?"

At the outset, Mr. Savaryn replied that the answer to this question "Yes" and that his elaboration would be "thematic." Rather than referring to the organization's historical record, he concentrated on specific pronouncements of figures such as Ukrainian National Republic President Symon Petliura, Ukrainian Catholic Patriarch Josyf Slipyj, Orthodox Archbishop Mykhail, the "Shestydesiatnyky" (1960's) poets in Ukraine, and historian Roman Smal-Stocki, that were used by WCFU/UWC leaders as inspiration in their efforts to "develop to the highest potential, not simply preserve, the Ukrainian identity of members of the diaspora," and "to give all possible aid for the liberation of the Ukrainian people."

The final speaker Prof. Wsevolod Isajiw, addressed the issue of "The Ukrainian Diaspora and the UWC in the Near Future."

The University of Toronto scholar identified the present day as a transitional period for the Ukrainian diaspora. Prof. Isajiw said that after watching the USSR fall, the diaspora community engaged in a frenzied rush of institution building in support of the new Ukrainian state and allowed its own institutions to drift into disarray.

Prof. Isajiw said the mid-1990s were a time of slowed pace in relations and disillusionment with Ukraine. The failure of high-profile business deals and the puzzling behavior of officials acting in an idiosyncratic fashion to further their state's best interests have ushered in the latest phase in the diaspora, that of more quiescent expectation of improvements in Ukraine, and a reform of attention to its own affairs.

This landscape is not all that inviting, as Prof. Isajiw saw it - an anemic and tired leadership and a dearth of youth involvement. He said the UWC has a chance to survive only if it assists in the efforts of Ukrainians to assert themselves as citizens of their adopted countries.

Addressing the issue of the diaspora's relations with Ukraine, Prof. Isajiw quoted Ukrainian Canadian historian Roman Serbyn, who recently wrote that just as an infant or child doesn't exist for the benefit of a mother, so a diaspora does not exist for the mother country. "A diaspora functions based on its own rules and customs, derived from its experience in the country of residence, which is necessarily different from that of the mother country," Prof. Isajiw said.

Like a doctor conducting a physical, Prof. Isajiw provoked some winces and snorts of protest as he put forward the idea of democratizing the UWC. He said the practice of only allowing agreed-upon candidates to run for the presidency and other senior executive positions cripples the organization and narrows the possibilities of drawing the most talented members of the community.

Prof. Isajiw also suggested that direct lines of communication between national representations, particularly between the U.S. and Canada, but also with Brazil and Argentina, should be vastly improved. He said this was an area in which the UWC could play its most effective role - in coordinating efforts against group defamation, for example.

The Toronto-based sociologist also made some brief comments about the diaspora community's demographics. He pointed out that immigration from Ukraine will continue to grow, and that the cultural and other differences of the newcomers will have to be taken into account.

Although Prof. Isajiw said a gradual loss of linguistic proficiency is to be expected through succeeding generations, he said researchers have found that assimilation is not a uni-directional process in which identity at arrival progressively dissolves into the identity of the adopted country.

After the panel presentations and discussion, Canadian NTSh president Dr. Volodymyr Mackiw presented a certificate granting honorary membership to Ukrainian Catholic Bishop Isidore Borecky, in recognition of his contribution to the development of the Eparchy of Toronto and Eastern Canada and support for Church scholarship.

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