Would
You Believe. . . When the Helsinki Accords were signed on August 1, 1975, the
likelihood they would have a profound and lasting impact on the world were very
small. Which is why a book about them after a half century is both surprisingly
topical and well worth reading for anyone with an interest in modern history.
The
thirty-five signatories were the nations of Europe, the United States and
Canada at was formally known as the Conference of Security and Cooperation in
Europe. The Final Act of CSCE contained detailed provisions on respect for
human rights and set country borders that essentially held until Russia invaded
Ukraine in February,2022.
Only
15 years after the summit signing, the Soviet Union imploded and its Eastern
European satellites broke with Communism and the broad range of human rights
issues –civil, social, economic, and political – were a major factor in this
historic turning point.
Peter
L.W. Osnos’ expertise on the history of the accords is vast, as a journalist
and publisher. His narrative writing skill is widely recognized. Holly Cartner provides a vivid account of how
a small organization called Helsinki Watch became Human Rights Watch, the most important
global NGO in its field.
Peter L.W.Osnos was born in Bombay (now Mumbai) India on
October 13, 1943. He arrived in Los Angeles by ship with his parents and
brother in February 1944. He was raised in New York and attended high school in
Connecticut, college at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachisetts and
graduate school at Columbia University., He worked as an assistant to the
journalist I.F.Stone and joined The Washington Post in 1966. At the Post,
Osnos served as a correspondent in Vietnam, the Soviet Union and London. He was
also the national and foreign editor. In 1984, Osnos joined Random House as a
senior editor and later associate publisher as well as publisher of the Times
Books imprint. In 1997, he founded PublicAffairs in partnership with the
Perseus Books Group and served as publisher and editor at large until 2020. He
was the founder of the Caravan Project on the development of digital and audio
publishing, author of a weekly media column called Platform which was hosted by
The Century Foundation and appeared on TheAtlantic.com and in 2020, launched
Platform Books LLC with his wife, Susan Sherer Osnos. The first book was
"An Especially Good View: Watching History Happen" released in May,
2021. It is Osnos' memoir, distributed by Two Rivers/Ingram. He is also
the editor of “George Soros: A Life in Full” (Platform Books/Harvard Business
Review Press, 2022). He is the father of two children, Evan Osnos and Katherine
Sanford, and grandfather of five. He and his wife now live in New
York City and Lakeside, Michigan.
Holly Cartner is a graduate of Columbia Law School, director
of Helsinki Watch and Europe and Central Asia Division of Human Rights Watch,
as well as a . consultant to human rights and social justice organizations. She
is Chair of the Advisory Board for Open Society’s Human Rights Initiative.
