[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 106 (Thursday, June 17, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4610-S4611]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          HELSINKI COMMISSION

  Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, I take this time as the Chair of the 
Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, better known as the 
Helsinki Commission, as we celebrate our 45th anniversary.
  The Helsinki Commission is the vehicle for U.S. participation in the 
Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, representing 57 
states that have come together under the OSCE, all the countries of 
Europe, all the countries of the former Soviet Union, including those 
located in Central Asia, the United States, and Canada.
  Mr. President, this is a unique body in that it represents both the 
executive and legislative branches of government. The executive branch 
has representatives on the Helsinki Commission, and both the House and 
Senate have Senators and Representatives that serve on the Helsinki 
Commission.
  I am very pleased to have as my co-leader Senator Wicker from 
Mississippi as the Republican leader in the Senate on the Helsinki 
Commission.
  The Helsinki Commission has been responsible for elevating our moral 
dimension to U.S. foreign policy. Its principles point out very clearly 
that you cannot have security without dealing with good governance and 
human rights; you cannot have economic progress unless you have 
governance that respects the rights of all its citizens.
  That is why I was so pleased when President Biden announced that his 
foreign policy would be value-based, that as we participate in our 
foreign policy challenges, it will always be wrapped in our values, and 
his recent trip to Europe underscored that important lesson. And then 
he issued, not 2 weeks ago, the statement that corruption is a core 
national security threat and that we have a responsibility to fight 
corruption in order to protect our national security.

  I am so pleased of the accomplishments of the Helsinki Commission, 
particularly from the human rights and human dimension. I go back to my 
early days in the House of Representatives, when the Soviet Union still 
existed and the challenges of Soviet Jews trying to emigrate from the 
Soviet Union. It was the Helsinki Commission that was one of the 
leading voices to help deal with Soviet Jews.
  I think about trafficking in persons, modern-day slavery, and the 
efforts that the United States did in leading that effort, including 
passing landmark legislation in trafficking in persons and establishing 
a rating system where every country in the world is rated on how well 
they are dealing with fighting trafficking. Now this has become the 
model, and so many countries have acted. It was the U.S. Helsinki 
Commission that led the effort for what Congress was able to pass and 
the international effort in order to fight trafficking in persons.
  I think about the perpetrators of war crimes and crimes against 
humanity and genocide, and recognize that it was the Helsinki 
Commission that pushed to hold those who were responsible for these 
atrocities accountable, particularly as it related to the Balkan 
conflict.
  Then I think about the landmark legislation that was passed in the 
Congress that deals with sanctions against

[[Page S4611]]

human rights violators, first the Magnitsky sanctions and then the 
Global Magnitsky sanctions. It came out of hearings from the Helsinki 
Commission and legislation that we authored. It is not only the 
standard here in the United States. It has been adopted as the standard 
in Europe, in Canada, and in other countries, to make it clear that 
human rights violators will not be able to hide their illicit funds in 
our banking system or visit our country.
  Perhaps our strongest contribution is the oversight hearings that we 
hold. We also passed the Elie Wiesel Atrocities Prevention Act. But 
just last week we had a hearing in the Helsinki Commission on how we 
can prevent atrocities from occurring in the first place. So I am very 
proud of the accomplishments of the Commission.
  Part of the responsibilities of every member state of the OSCE is 
that we have the right to challenge any state's compliance with the 
Helsinki Final Act Accords. So it is our responsibility to challenge 
when Russia violates those provisions or we see violations in Turkey--
any member state you can challenge.
  But we also have to do our own self-evaluation. As chairman of the 
Commission, I have been using that opportunity to question conduct in 
our own country when it does not match the responsibilities that we 
should have. We saw that in the past in regard to the torture issues in 
Guantanamo Bay.
  My participation in the Helsinki Commission goes back to my early 
days in the House of Representatives and some of my proudest moments of 
representing our country on the international stage. Let me just give 
you a few examples.
  In February 1991, I joined a fact-finding mission to Latvia, 
Lithuania, and Estonia. That is when the Soviet tanks were in Vilnius. 
That is when the Soviet Union was demonstrating oppression against the 
people of the Baltic States. It was a very sad moment of oppression, 
and we went there to stand up for the people of the region, to let them 
know that the United States never recognized the Soviet's occupation of 
the Baltic States, and that we stood with the people and their 
independence.
  It was very interesting. We went from there to Moscow, and Mikhail 
Gorbachev didn't want to have anything to do with us. He wouldn't have 
a meeting with us, and he wouldn't acknowledge that we were there. But 
we had a meeting with Boris Yeltsin, who at that time was the chair of 
the parliament, and we got great visibility. And Yeltsin supported our 
efforts to condemn the Russian use of force.
  I have been to Germany several times. My first trip on behalf of the 
Helsinki Commission was when it was a divided country, and we went to 
East Berlin. We were the voices for those oppressed people whose voices 
could not otherwise be heard, and we gave them hope that one day they 
would see freedom.
  I then returned when we were literally taking down the Berlin Wall, 
and I joined in taking down part of the Berlin Wall. I have part of 
that as a prized possession in my home.
  I have returned to Germany as a united country and see what a 
democratic Germany means and the work of our Commission to bring down 
the Iron Curtain. Germany is now a leading democratic state and a great 
ally of the United States.
  I have been to Kiev, Ukraine, on several occasions. I was there 
during the Maidan protests, where the people demanded democracy. And 
then I had a chance to return and monitor the elections in Ukraine with 
Senator Portman--again, a country that has been able to rid itself of 
the oppression of the Soviet Union.
  I have been very active in the Helsinki Commission in regards to the 
Parliamentary Assembly. I chaired one of their three standing 
committees. I had a chance to become vice president at the 
Parliamentary Assembly.
  Today, I acknowledge Senator Wicker, who is vice president. It points 
out the bipartisan nature of the Helsinki Commission and our work on 
the international platform

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