Minnesota Session Laws - 1987, Regular Session

  

                         Laws of Minnesota 1987 

                        RESOLUTION 3-S.F.No. 653 
 A resolution memorializing the Union of Soviet 
Socialist Republics to grant exit visas to Jewish 
prisoners of conscience. 
    WHEREAS, the government of the Soviet Union has recently 
demonstrated a new openness in their society by releasing some 
political prisoners; and 
    WHEREAS, the right to leave is contained in the Universal 
Declaration of Human Rights, and the right to family 
reunification is recognized by the signatories to the Helsinki 
Accords; and 
    WHEREAS, Jews remain the only recognized nationality in the 
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics deprived of their cultural 
and linguistic identity, and the exercise of the Jewish religion 
has been restricted in a manner which is excessive even by the 
standards of Soviet law; and 
    WHEREAS, Jews are threatened by a systematic Soviet 
propaganda assault disguised as anti-Zionism; and 
    WHEREAS, Jews are subject to discrimination in higher 
education and employment; and 
    WHEREAS, Jews who teach the Hebrew language are subject to 
police harassment and even imprisonment; and 
    WHEREAS, the Soviet Union is a signatory to the Helsinki 
Accords, and a contracting party to the International Covenant 
on Civil and Political Rights and the United Nations 
Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization Convention 
Against Discrimination in Education, which obligates it to 
fulfill the cultural rights of minorities; and 
    WHEREAS, the Soviet constitution guarantees cultural and 
linguistic rights, but these are not applied uniformly and 
consistently to Jews; and 
    WHEREAS, an estimated 400,000 Jews have applied and are 
still waiting to emigrate; NOW, THEREFORE, 
    BE IT RESOLVED by the Legislature of the State of Minnesota 
that it urges the General Secretary, Michail Gorbachev, and 
Rudolf Kunetsov, Chief of OVIR (immigration), to grant exit 
visas immediately to Jewish former prisoners of conscience, and 
to those waiting over ten years, followed by visas to those 
refused for five to ten years. 
     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Secretary of State of the 
state of Minnesota is directed to prepare certified copies of 
this memorial and send them to Michail Gorbachev and Rudolf 
Kunetsov. 
    Approved April 7, 1987