Key: (1) language to be deleted (2) new language
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
Official Publication of the State of Minnesota
Revisor of Statutes