The Summing up of the Helsinki Foundation / Mario Lleonart

Screen Shot 2013-07-05 at 11.57.35 AMTo visit the site in Warsaw of the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights on the afternoon of the historic June 4, anniversary of those first elections with which Poles inaugurated their new period of democracy; to be received there with so much emotion by its President Danuta Przywara, and to hear her from her own mouth the narrative of her experiences in those crucial years the ‘80s, as well as the raison d’être of such a laudable Foundation, this alone would have completely justified my presence in Poland.

The fact that its predecessor organization, the Helsinki Committee, was founded during, and in protest against, the martial law of 1982, made me reflect on how the bad ends up becoming the good. Already it was a long time ago that that repressive wave is past history, but in Poland one finds very active this Foundation that the Committee organized in 1989 as an independent institution to monitor, educate and promote human rights and fundamental freedoms.

The Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights is one of the reasons why, on my return to Cuba, I felt stronger that when I had left. One of the four fundamental purposes of the Baptist World Alliance (BWA), of whose family I am honorably a part, is exactly the defense of human rights, and for that its Commission on Justice and Peace. In the difficult implementation of this mission for which God has put me in Cuba, international organizations such as Amnesty or Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) have been my main support. Now I also count on this prestigious Foundation of Poland. Human Rights in Cuba win, their violators lose,increasingly at a greater disadvantage, predestined to disappear.

2 July 2013