HC Deb 19 December 1980 vol 996 c325W
Mr. Lawrence

asked the Lord Privy Seal what action the United Kingdom delegation at the Madrid CSCE review meeting has taken to promote better observation of the human rights provisions of the Final Act in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.

Mr. Blaker

The United Kingdom delegation and many other delegations have forcefully criticised the Soviet record on human rights at Madrid. The United Kingdom delegation has also taken a leading role in drawing up a proposal which calls on participating States to improve their record in certain named fields of human rights and in particular to consider the progressive removal of existing legal, administrative or other measures which have the effect of jeopardising their citizens' rights. The named fields include the activities of monitoring groups and religious freedoms. This proposal was tabled with co-sponsorship from all European Community and NATO delegations and Spain on 11 December at Madrid and will be discussed when the meeting resumes on 27 January.