Situation of the Jewish community in the Soviet Union
Recommendation 722
(1974)
- Author(s):
- Parliamentary Assembly
- Origin
- Assembly debate on 21 January 1974 (20th Sitting) (see Doc. 3374, report of the Committee on European Non-Member Countries). Text adopted by the Assembly on 21 January 1974 (20th Sitting).
The Assembly,
2. Noting with satisfaction that a considerable number of Soviet Jews have been granted permits to leave the Soviet Union since the beginning of 1971 ;
3. Conscious, however, of the continued harassments of Soviet Jews who apply for exit visas and of the rejection of many such applications without any valid reason ;
4. Concerned by the grave human suffering caused by the arbitrary separation of families ;
5. Deeply concerned by the repeated reports of police harassment, arbitrary arrests and show trials directed against members of the Jewish community in the Soviet Union as well as by the situation of those prisoners already condemned ;
6. Concerned at the possibility of further actions against Soviet Jewish citizens who apply for exit visas on the basis of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination ;
7. Concerned at expressions of so-called anti-Zionist propaganda in the Soviet Union which is often indistinguishable from anti-semitism and liable to provoke latent anti-semitism ;
8. Concerned further at the continued restriction of the freedom of Soviet Jews to practise their religion, to maintain Jewish cultural life (books, periodicals, theatres etc.), and to use in print or to learn Jewish languages such as Yiddish and Hebrew ;
9. Mindful of the aims of the current Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, and in particular of Chapter III ("Cooperation in humanitarian and other fields") of the final recommendations of the preceding Helsinki consultations,
10. Recommends that the Committee of Ministers invite member governments to urge the Soviet authorities to contribute further to the improvement of East-West relations, and thus also to act in the spirit of the current Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe :
by removing the obstacles and by simplifying and speeding up the procedures for granting exit permits to those Jews who, for various reasons, wish to emigrate ;
by guaranteeing that no repressive measures will be taken against Soviet Jews claiming this elementary right to leave the country in pursuance of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination ;
by granting the Jewish community the cultural and religious rights guaranteed to all national and ethnic groups on a basis of complete equality by Article 123 of the Constitution of the USSR ;
by expressly prohibiting anti-semitic propaganda in the form of books or other publications in pursuance of the same article.
