CHARTER 77

Charter 77 was a petition drawn up by a few Czechoslovakian writers and intellectuals. It demanded that the Communist government of Czechoslovakia recognize some basic human rights. Charter 77 was hardly a radical document. Most of the rights it sought were already guaranteed by the Czechoslovakian Constitution and the Helsinki Accords, which the Czechoslovakian government had signed.

One of the founding members of Charter 77 was Vaclav Havel, the 10th President of Czechoslovakia and the first President of the Czech Republic. He has openly supported Charter 08 in an article in The Wall Street Journal, December 19 2008. To read this article click here . Havel became a leading figure in the Velvet Revolution of 1989 which led to the non-violent downfall of communism in Czechoslovakia.

Few people had the courage to sign Charter 77. In a country of 15 million, less than two thousand Czechoslovakian citizens signed it, and most of them signed in 1989 when the Communist regime was nearing collapse. Many of the Charter signers were apolitical. Many acted alone and were not members of any dissident groups. Some still believed in Socialism. Most were just ordinary people with no agendas, no axes to grind, no motivation other than to live their lives with integrity.

Yet the government expended enormous resources harassing the Charter signers. They were isolated and ostracized. Their meetings were banned. Some were followed, interrogated, forced to work at menial jobs, or put in jail. Repression of Charter 77 signatories continued in the 1980s. Despite unrelenting harassment and arrests, however, the groups continued to issue reports on the government's violations of human rights.

A number of the founding members of Charter 77 oversaw the non-violent transition of communist party rule to democracy in Czechoslovakia in 1989. You can read the English translation of the original text here.