On Wednesday, April 15, The Remembrance Society hosted a symposium for the 50th anniversary of the U.S. Helsinki Commission at the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center, “The Enduring Legacy of the Helsinki Process and its Continued Importance for the Future of Freedom.”
The symposium featured opening remarks from partner organizations Memorial and the Prague Society, Ambassador of Finland to the United States Leena-Kaisa Mikkola and Ambassador of Switzerland to the United States Ralf Heckner, and Mykola Horbal, former Chair of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group, recognizing the remarkable bi-partisan work that the U.S. Helsinki Commission has done over the past five decades advancing human rights and freedom.
The U.S. Helsinki Commission was honored with The Remembrance Society’s 2026 Resistance and Solidarity Award, accepted on behalf of the Commission by Chairman Senator Roger Wicker and the former Democratic Chairman Congressman Steny Hoyer. The Chairman of The Remembrance Society, The Hon. Don Ritter, was also honored with the 2026 Resistance and Solidarity Award for his lifelong dedication to resisting totalitarian tyranny and standing in solidarity with those struggling for liberty.
Distinguished panelists including Vladimir Kara-Murza, Kyle Parker, Amb. Martin Palous, David Satter, Jamie Fly, Amb. James Gilmore, spoke about the great dissidents of the decade of the 1980s and how the Final Act influenced their activities, about the dissidents who have been murdered in the post-Soviet Putin era, and the role of the U.S. Helsinki Commission and the United States in advancing the principles of the Helsinki Accords, then and now, and how those principles can continue to promote freedom and peace in Europe in light of Russia’s war against Ukraine and beyond.
The recording of the symposium is available here on the U.S. Helsinki Commission’s YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FiG9RMYegU
