22/05/2024 14:15 - 16:30

HALL: LA PIRA - ROOM 5

Proponent: Kunter K., Roulin S.

Chair: Kunter K.

Speaker: Beliakova N., Boel B., Cerny-Werner R., Faggioli M., Kunter K., Roulin S.

In 2025, the international community will commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Helsinki Final Act and the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE; 1973-1975). This milestone is often lauded as a significant diplomatic achievement during the détente era, a pivotal moment in the cessation of the Cold War. However, the integrity of the Helsinki Final Act faces formidable challenges in the wake of Russia's war of aggression in Ukraine. Should the Helsinki process therefore be seen as a policy based on false premises? Or, for this very reason, analysed even more carefully from a historical perspective? What about the emergence of new forms and models of cooperation aimed at bridging the East-West divide, spearheaded in this period by civil society organisations of various kinds - humanitarian agencies, churches and religious organisations, groups of human rights activists? Drawing on recent research (e.g. Tyszkiewicz, Human Rights and Political Dissident in Central Europe - Between the Helsinki Accords and the Fall of the Berlin Wall, 2021; Badalassi and Snyder, The CSCE and the End of the Cold War: Diplomacy, Societies and Human Rights, 2019; Thomas, The Helsinki Effect: International Norms, Human Rights, and the Demise of Communism, 2001) this panel will present new research on the topic, discuss its historical relevance and current political instrumentalisation in Europe.