What if an international agreement that looks like a victory of dictatorship, a diplomatic compromise, or at least a useless formality, becomes a time bomb? This is what happened to the Helsinki Final Act, signed half a century ago, recalls Slovak writer and journalist Martin Šimečka. He reflects on how the idea of human rights played a decisive role in the fall of communism in Eastern Europe, and why was the might of this idea limited by the historical moment. We’re publishing a translation of the essay from Eurozine magazine with minor abridgements.
Read the original article in English
Read the Russian language version at Sapere Aude online