Volume 36, Number 8 · May 18, 1989
In Gorbachev's Courts
By George P. Fletcher
I recently visited the Soviet Union as a member of a Helsinki Watch mission investigating the current state of human rights there.[1] In our official meetings we concentrated on the questions of emigration, psychiatric abuse, informal political activity, free speech,[2] but I also wanted to find out how ordinary criminals are tried in the courts. Does the pervasive talk in the capital about glasnost and human rights make a difference in daily life, particularly in the provinces, where neither Sakharov nor the foreign press can observe what happens?
Feature, 5518 words
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