West Proposes Plan to Ensure Rights Compliance

Western nations Wednesday proposed a major three-stage “action program” designed to ensure compliance with the human rights provisions of the 1975 Helsinki accords.

The proposal, the first to be put forward here by the West at the follow-up Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, would oblige the 35 conference nations that signed the accords to reply to questions on human rights. It would launch a continuous process leading to a special human rights conference.

“It is a concrete action program and an attempt to get away from endless rhetorical speeches,” Belgium’s chief delegate, Joseph Trouveroy, told a news conference. “Nothing of what is proposed is impossible.”

He was speaking on behalf of the 17 sponsors of the proposal--the 12 nations of the European Communities plus the United States, Canada, Iceland, Turkey and Norway.

Since the Vienna conference opened in November, 1986, Western nations have spent much time attacking the human rights record of the Soviet Union.

Steps of Proposal

Explaining the mechanism of the three-stage proposal, chief British delegate Lawrence O’Keeffe said the first step would:

--Commit conference members to reply to requests for information on human rights from member states and interested groups.

--Set up a procedure of notification to allow one state to inform all others of its views on particularly difficult cases.

--Enable governments to demand special meetings of the member nations to discuss specific cases or situations.

As the second step, the members would meet to assess the first step and recommend new measures to improve fulfillment of human rights pledges to a full conference on “the human dimension.” This conference would be the third step.

Soviets Rights Proposal

Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze proposed in November, 1986, that an international conference on humanitarian cooperation be held in Moscow.

“The Soviet proposal addresses specific aspects of human rights,” O’Keeffe said, listing these aspects as information, culture, education and human contacts. “Our proposal addresses the whole subject.”

He said there had been as yet no response to the Western proposal from the Soviet Union or its allies.