LETTONIE - RUSSIE, Traités et documents de base

Tallin May 14, 1989 : Declaration of the Rights of the Baltic Nations

Declaration of the Rights of the Baltic Nations

Priority of universal human values is gaining general acceptance in world polities. Aims are being set at further progress of mankind, of which the preservation and development of all nations is a precondition. The most important values of human life and activity are born and preserved in the national medium. Only recognition of the rights of the nations, similarly to the recognition of human rights, will give a humanistic and democratic tendency to political developments in each state.

The BALTIC NATIONS base their rights on universally adopted international norms, as defined in the Charter of the United Nations, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Declaration of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the documents of the Helsinki Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe and the final document of the Vienna Conference.

The BALTIC ASSEMBLY considers genocide to have been an inseparable part of Stalinist policies. The all-levelling ideological system and repressive political practice of Stalinism abolished both human rights as well as the rights of the nations living within the reach of its power. By annexing the Baltic states, the Soviet Union destroyed the statehood of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania and did its utmost to make the peoples of these countries to lose their national identity.

Even today, the BALTIC NATIONS, having gone to enormous effort to preserve their existence, have virtually no possibility of determining their own fate and gaining state� sovereignty. No essential changes have taken place in the great-power ideology and politics of the USSR, according to which nationality is interpreted as a passing phenomenon in the way of progress. The system of power in the Soviet Union denies peoples even the most guarded attempts at self-determination.

The BALTIC ASSEMBLY, striving to assert the natural and inalienable rights of its nations, declares:

- the right of the nations to existence in their historical territories;

- the right of the nations to self-determination and free determination of their political status;

- the right and obligation of the nations to preserve and develop their culture and identity;

- the obligation of the nations to grant civil rights and cultural autonomy to all the national and ethnic groups living in their territories;

- the right of the nations to choose such forms of management which guarantee their material and cultural development, as well as sparing utilisation of their natural resources and protection of the environment;

- the rights of the nations to independent co-operation with other nations and states.

These rights and obligations must become the basis for further political and economic development of the Baltic nations. Thereby the Baltic Assembly expresses the aspiration of its nations for state sovereignty in a neutral, demilitarised Baltoscandia.

Tallinn, May l4th, 1989

On behalf of the Council of Representatives of the Popular Front of Estonia
On behalf of the Duma of the Popular Front of Latvia
On behalf of the Seimas of the Lithuanian Reform Movement Sajudis

Source:
Baltic Assembly, Tallin, May 13-14, 1989, Popular Front of Estonia, Valgus Publishers 1989