TNAG-2321-FCO40-3365-Human-rights-in-Hong-Kong-1991 — Page 32

It was the combination of internal and external pressures which finally achieved freedom and human rights.

-It was the fantastic courage of the individuals who were prepared to go to prison and put up with unspeakable hardship in order to achieve their rights and those of others, people like President Havel.

It was the vision of those who, like President Gorbachev, understood that you would never get economic reform and prosperity until you set people free.

-It was the fact that we had leaders in the West prepared to make use of the Helsinki Agreements, to bring oppression into the open and to press for change, indeed insist on it as a condition for improved relations, like President Reagan and President Bush.

So in a very real sense, many people in Eastern and Central Europe today can trace their new freedom back to the Helsinki Agreements. A process which some envisaged as perpetuating the division of Europe has actually helped to overcome that division.

The Future of the Agreements

But the agenda which seemed so ambitious in 1975 looks really rather modest now. That is the proof of how successful the agreements have been. But it also tells us it is time to see how we can use the experience gained from Helsinki even more effectively in the future.

There are several ways in which we can do that. First, we should keep the basic focus on human rights and the rule of law. Some months ago I suggested that we should agree on a European Magna Carta to enshrine for every European citizen, including those in the Soviet Union, the basic rights which we in the West take for granted. I am glad that the Final Document from this meeting, which we shall sign on Wednesday, endorses these freedoms for every individual. But we have to remember that such liberties and the rule of law cannot be created overnight. In our case they have grown up over centuries and it is that which gives them their strength.

Secondly, we have gained valuable experience from working together within the framework of the Helsinki Agreements. We are even now taking a further step to develop the CSCE as a forum for regular political consultation among all the countries of Europe and North America. It will represent a great coming together of Europe, of a sort we have probably not seen since the Congress of Vienna in 1815.

But consultation on its own is not enough. We need to set ourselves a more ambitious objective. I believe we should establish a great alliance for democracy which would extend from the Pacific coast of the United States right across Europe to the Soviet Far East. That would be the best guarantee of all for our security. Democracies do not go to war with each other. They have too high a regard for freedom and justice, not only for those in their own country but in each other's countries as well.

Such a great alliance could provide the framework for other changes. We would hope to see East and Central European countries join the Council of Europe. In the slightly longer term we would also hope to see them join the European Community when they are ready and want to do so.

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