German problem as a whole
- Author(s):
- Parliamentary Assembly
- Origin
- Assembly debate on 25th September 1961 (13th and 14th Sittings) (see Addendum I to Doc. 1334, Report of the Political Committee). Text adopted by the Assembly on 25th September 1961 (14th Sitting).
1. The Assembly,
2. Recalling that no international agreement can be terminated unilaterally and that the Soviet Government remains bound by obligations to which it subscribed in London on 12th September and 14th November 1944, in Berlin on 7th July 1945 in New York on 4th May 1949 and in Paris on 20th June 1949, and which guarantee the protection of West Berlin by Western forces and unimpaired rights of access;
3. Believing that such protection and right of access by the West are essential to secure West Berlin from Communist aggression, to safeguard the freedom of its people and to ensure their right to enjoy the choice, freely made by them at the elections on 7th December 1958, of democracy and freedom;
4. Denying the right of the authorities of the Soviet-occupied zone to change the status of Berlin as a whole by making East Berlin their capital and by stationing German troops in Berlin;
5. Recalling that the problems with which Berlin and Germany are now faced are bound up with a wider European problem,
6. Condemns :
a the expressed intention of the Soviet Government to sign a separate peace treaty with the authorities of the Soviet-occupied zone of Germany;
b their support of these authorities action in closing the boundary between East and West Berlin, thus violating still further the fundamental rights and freedoms laid down in the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights;
c their policy of intimidation, especially in resuming the atmospheric testing of nuclear devices;
7. Urges the Western Powers :
a to uphold their unquestionable right to remain in West Berlin and to ensure full and free access to the city by land, water and air;
b to safeguard the democratic freedoms now enjoyed by the population of West Berlin;
c to open negotiations with the Soviet Government on the German problem as a whole;
d to consider any freely negotiated settlement which conforms to the principles of self-determination and safeguards the security and other legitimate interests of all concerned; and
e to take all steps likely to lead to a settlement enabling the peoples of Central and Eastern Europe who are victims of Soviet imperialism to exercise their right of self-determination.
