“The Charter’s ambition is to act in accordance with its own conscience and convictions and thereby indicate to others that this opportunity is also available to them: to remind them of their own dignity; to remind them of the truth.”
Václav Havel: On the Meaning of Charter 77, 1986
With the written declaration of Charter 77, the informal civic initiative of the same name came into existence in communist Czechoslovakia on 1 January 1977. It demanded that the totalitarian state authorities adhere to the human rights and civil liberties that Czechoslovakia itself had committed to with the signature of the Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Helsinki. It was active from 1977 on, winding its activities up two years after the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1992.
On the 7th of Julty we could commemorate the 40th anniversary of this act. Participants could take part in debate covering the Charta '77 itself and related issue. Discussion touched not only the history of the Czechoslovakia, but also enabled to make references to current human rights negligence.
