Helsinki Human Rights Day, 2000

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Title 3--
The President

Proclamation 7332 of August 1, 2000

Helsinki Human Rights Day, 2000

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

Twenty-five years ago today, in a world marked by
brutal divisions and ideological conflict, the United
States joined 33 European nations and Canada in signing
the Helsinki Final Act. That watershed event
established the Conference on Security and Cooperation
in Europe (CSCE) and affirmed an international
commitment to respect ``freedom of thought, conscience,
religion or belief, for all without distinction as to
race, sex, language, or religion.''

During the Cold War, the Helsinki Principles were the
rallying point for courageous men and women who
confronted tyranny--often at great personal risk--to
win the fundamental freedoms set forth by the Final
Act. Today, citizens of our vast Euro-Atlantic
community from Vancouver to Vladivostok live by, or
aspire to live, by those fundamental freedoms. The
Helsinki Final Act has been instrumental in the
progress we have made together toward building a Europe
that is whole and free; a Europe where our partnership
for peace is overcoming the possibility of war. The
Helsinki Final Act continues to shape our vision for
the future of transatlantic cooperation, and the
Helsinki accords remain the basic definition of common
goals and standards for how all countries in the new
Europe should treat their citizens and one another.

The evolution of the CSCE into the Organization for
Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) reflects the
changing face of Europe. The OSCE's integrated
structure of commitments in the areas of human rights,
economics, arms control, and conflict resolution
provides a defining framework for a free and undivided
Europe. The United States will continue to promote the
OSCE's efforts to build security within and cooperation
among democratic societies; to defuse conflicts; to
battle corruption and organized crime; and to champion
human rights, fundamental freedoms, and the rule of law
throughout the Euro-Atlantic community. We remain
committed to the OSCE's essential work of bringing
peace and civil society back to Bosnia and Kosovo, and
we are grateful to the many dedicated men and women
engaged in the OSCE's field missions, who in many ways
are our front line of conflict prevention in Europe.

Today, as we mark the 25th anniversary of the Helsinki
Final Act, the United States takes pride in remembering
our role as one of its original signatories--a ringing
call for freedom and human dignity that played a
decisive role in lifting the Iron Curtain and ending
the tragic division of Europe.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, WILLIAM J. CLINTON, President of the
United States of America, by virtue of the authority
vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United
States, do hereby proclaim August 1, 2000, as Helsinki
Human Rights Day and reaffirm our Nation's support for
the full implementation of the Helsinki Final Act. I
urge the American people to observe this anniversary
with appropriate programs, ceremonies, and activities
that reflect our dedication to the noble principles of
human rights and democracy. I also call upon the
governments and peoples of all other

signatory states to renew their commitment to comply
with the principles established and consecrated in the
Helsinki Final Act.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
first day of August, in the year of our Lord two
thousand, and of the Independence of the United States
of America the two hundred and twenty-fifth.