Wednesday, October 8, 20258:30 AM
Picture credit: Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-P0801-026 / Horst Sturm / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE, via Wikimedia Commons
This is an invite-only event.
ABOUT THE CONFERENCE
This conference is a commemoration of the 50th Anniversary of the Helsinki Accords. On August 1, 1975 President Gerald Ford, Soviet premier Leonid Brezhnev, and the leaders of many European states—ranging from Valerie Giscard d’Estaing of France to Erich Honecker of East Germany—met in Helsinki to sign a landmark Cold War pact. The resulting Helsinki Accords addressed territorial borders, scientific cooperation, dispute resolution, and other topics.
But perhaps the most significant was the so-called “Basket Three,” on human rights. In 1978 “Helsinki Watch” was founded—soon to become Human Rights Watch—and many dissident groups in Eastern Europe began to use the Helsinki Accords to demand greater openness and reform. The Helsinki process more broadly has continued through the Organization on Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which today comprises 57 member states.
This conference will explore what scholars have dubbed “The Helsinki Effect” and evaluate Helsinki’s legacy a half century later. Initially unpopular in the West, the Helsinki Accords had their greatest effect in the East. What can we learn from the evolution of the Helsinki process? What lasting effects does Helsinki have in the 2020s? And what lessons does Helsinki impart for current conflicts and tensions?
AGENDA
8:30 a.m. – Continental breakfast & check in
9 a.m. – Welcoming remarks
9:15 – 10:15 a.m. – Opening keynote: Present at the creation
- Ambassador Pertti Torstilla, former state secretary for foreign affairs, Finland, in conversation with
- Ambassador Derek Shearer, diplomat in residence/emeritus Chevalier Professor of Diplomacy and director, McKinnon Center for Global Affairs, Occidental College
10:15 – 11:15 a.m. – Panel: The Cold War and Helsinki’s impacts
-
Tim Naftali, senior research scholar in the faculty of international and public affairs, Columbia
- Daniel Treisman, professor of political science, UCLA
- Tuomas Forsberg, professor of international relations, Tampere University
- Moderator: Alexandra Lieben, deputy director, UCLA Burkle Center
11:15 – 11:30 a.m. – Coffee break
11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. – Panel: Helsinki and human rights
- Kimberly Marteau Emerson, vice chair, board of directors, Human Rights Watch
- Anna Spain Bradley, professor of law and faculty director, The Promise Institute for Human Rights at UCLA
- Hannah Garry, clinical professor of law and director for the International Human Rights Clinic, faculty director of the Justice and Accountability Initiative, USC
- Moderator: Kate Mackintosh, executive director, UCLA Law Promise Institute Europe
12:30 – 1:45 p.m. – Lunch
1:15 – 1:45 p.m. – Keynote
- Ken Roth, Charles and Marie Robertson Visiting Professor and visiting lecturer, Princeton University; former executive director, Human Rights Watch, in conversation with
- Kal Raustiala, director, UCLA Burkle Center
2 – 3 p.m. – Panel: Can Helsinki be replicated elsewhere?
- David Kang, Maria Crutcher Professor in International Relations and professor of international relations and business, USC
- Dalia Dassa Kaye, senior fellow and director, Initiative for Regional Security Architectures, UCLA Burkle Center
- Moderator: TBA
3 – 3:15 p.m. – Coffee break
3:15 – 4:15 p.m. – Closing keynote: The future of human rights
4:30 p.m. – End of conference
4:30 – 6:30 p.m. – Reception
Sponsor(s): Burkle Center for International Relations, Center for European and Russian Studies, International & Comparative Law Program (ICLP) at UCLA School of Law, The Promise Institute for Human Rights at UCLA School of Law, USC Human Rights Program, McKinnon Center for Global Affairs at Occidental College, Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, UC Irvine Law School