Human rights body condemns crimes of communist regimes

Members of the Council of Europe’s 46 member states today condemned the crimes committed by communist regimes across the continent during 40 years of the Cold War.

The Council’s parliamentary assembly, an advisory body comprising several hundred national parliamentarians and senators, approved a resolution saying the totalitarian communist regimes which ruled in Central and Eastern Europe were characterised by massive violations of human rights, with crimes against ordinary citizens justified in the name of the class struggle.