Along with Charter 77 and the Committee for the Defence of the Unjustly
Persecuted, the Czechoslovak Helsinki Committee was a key dissident
organisation in the communist period, pressuring the government to adhere
to its human rights commitments. Today known as the Czech Helsinki
Committee, it is still active, advocating for people who often have nowhere
else to turn. I discussed the committee’s work with its director, Lucie
Rybová. But I first asked her about the reasons for its establishment, in
November 1988.