Hoyer Statement on the Passing of Yelena Bonner

WASHINGTON, DC - House Democratic Whip Steny H. Hoyer (MD) released the following statement on the passing of human rights activist Yelena Bonner: 

“Yelena Bonner, one of the world’s great human rights activists, died on Saturday at the age of 88. I hope that we can all take a moment to reflect on her legacy of principled advocacy for human freedom. As one of the leading political dissidents in the Soviet Union—and wife of her fellow dissident, Andrei Sakharov—Yelena Bonner worked tirelessly to hold her repressive government to the standards of openness it professed, yet violated routinely. She was instrumental in insisting that the Soviet Union live by the 1975 Helsinki Accords, which committed it to respect the basic freedoms of its people, and I was honored to work with her as Chair of the Helsinki Commission created to monitor the implementation of those Accords. Her advocacy came at the cost of great personal sacrifice, but it contributed significantly to the ultimate spread of democracy in the Eastern Bloc. Just as importantly, Yelena Bonner’s example of selfless courage will long outlive her.”