ABSTRACT
The Vienna Review Conference of the Helsinki Final Act signatories, concluded in January 1989, marked an enormously significant step forward in the human rights aspects of the Helsinki process. An earlier Helsinki-sponsored meeting of human rights experts held in Ottawa, Canada, in July 1985, had also ended in a frustrating deadlock without a concluding document. The meeting had been marked by intense conflicts over human rights charges, with the USSR totally unresponsive when issues about prisoners of conscience, incarcerated Helsinki members, Andrey Sakharov's internal exile, and restricted emigration patterns were raised. Ridgway's comment to the Helsinki Commission implied that the problems of Bern, Ottawa, and Budapest lay in the fact that only one "basket"--Basket Three, with its focal point on human rights--was under discussion, providing little leverage. The Ridgway perspective, bolstered by informed experience, gave emphasis to the strategy of linkage.
