Rep. Edward Mezvinsky (D.Iowa) and Rep. Elizabeth Holtzman (D.NY) have called on President Ford to obtain a firm Soviet commitment on human rights at the summit meeting of the European Security Conference in Helsinki. In a resolution introduced in the House, the lawmakers asked the President to “seek specific guarantees and commitments for the unhampered movement of persons, information and ideas…before signing or otherwise agreeing to any declaration or other statement of principles produced by the Conference.”
A copy of the resolution and a letter to the President urging that “guarantees of political and social freedom be included in those political assurances negotiated at the summit” were delivered to Ford at the White House before he left for Europe. Joining Mezvinsky and Holtzman in the resolution and letter to Ford were Reps. Joshua Eilberg (D. Pa.), Hamilton Fish, Jr. (R. NY) and Christopher J. Dodd (D. Conn.). The five Representatives–all members of the House Judiciary Committee–recently traveled together to the Soviet Union to investigate freedom of emigration in that country.
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