Міжнародні відносини: теоретико-практичні аспекти (May 2020)
THE ROLE OF PUBLIC MOVEMENTS FOR THE PROTECTION OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE FORMATION OF THE DEMOCRATIC REGIMES OF CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE IN 1989–1991
Abstract
The main directions (kinds) of the public movements for the protection of human rights in Ukraine and other states of the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) in the period of 1989–1991 are analyzed. The employment of an interdisciplinary approach allowed to study the influence of these movements on the change of the social consciousness and on the increase of patriotic and opposition sentiments in the society. It is indicated that such movements appeared in different spheres of the society life and had dissimilar intensity. In particular, in the article, the following most significant directions of the public movements are being analyzed, which took place, in fact, in all CEE countries including Ukraine: Helsinki Human Rights Movement; youth movements aimed at fighting for democracy and the state independence as well as the protection of rights for education; public movements for protection of religious, ecological, and employment rights (labor and trade union movements). The political and legal analysis conducted demonstrates that the new public movements and public organizations in their first years of activity did not always have the directly protesting or clearly oppositional character. The conditions imposed by them concerned rather enhancement of the rights and freedoms, limitation of the state intrusion into particular spheres of life, improvement of the conditions of the social and political development, etc. Nevertheless, with the flow of time, such public movements in different spheres of public life very often gained political and opposing character. As a result, the conclusion has been made that the indicated movements have played the key role in the realization of antitotalitarian revolutions, the overthrow of totalitarianism, and building the new democratic regimens in the CEE countries. The development of the public movements for the protection of human rights in Ukraine in the period of 1989-1991 was aimed at preserving the identity, which contributed to the formation of the liberation movement in the struggle for independence of Ukraine and its withdrawal from the USSR.
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