From Helsinki to Strasbourg: Human Rights, Soft Power, and the Precarious Future of Liberal Institutions

Abstract

To fully appreciate the importance of Russia’s continued participation in the Council of Europe and citizens’ access to the European Court of Human Rights, it is vital to first understand the influential role the introduction of human rights through the Helsinki Final Act played in affecting foreign and domestic policy change in the Soviet Union. In this paper, I argue that the United States, by political design, instrumentalized human rights values as a mechanism of operationalizing its soft power resources to engage in an ideological competition with the Soviets for the hearts and minds of Soviet citizens during the Cold War. The signing of the Final Act by Brezhnev was a pivotal turning point in Soviet history because it obligated the Soviet Union to comply with human rights values, subjected the Soviets to international scrutiny for violations, and scheduled review meeting to assess member states’ compliance with the Final Act. This paper demonstrates how the United States also weaponized human rights values as a bargaining chip, arguing that they would only honor other aspects of the Final Act if the Soviets liberalized.. In a sense, the Council of Europe preserves the spirit of Helsinki because it keeps the Russian Federation integrated in a pan-European liberal institution that values human rights and subjects the state to international scrutiny for violations of these rights in the European Court of Human Rights. Given the prominence of anti-Western and anti-Liberalism sentiments, Russia’s continued membership in the CoE is an important avenue for liberal ideas and values to flow into the country, lest the country become isolated causing the resurrection of east and west divisions. With Brexit threatening the legitimacy of the EU, a Ruxit could threaten the legitimacy of the CoE.