To assess Soviet compliance with the provisions of the Helsinki Accords (the Helsinki Final Act), the Moscow-Helsinki Group collects and publishes documented human rights abuses in the USSR. The Moscow-Helsinki Group was formed by 11 participants in the human rights movement in 1976 and has prepared documentation regarding human rights violations for major international human rights conferences since that time. The group bases its reports on information gleaned from letters, phone calls, and personal reports from Soviet citizens. Information is checked for accuracy by various means, including referring to official documents such as secret instructions regarding trials and legal decisions and sending group members to evaluate alleged violations. The group believes that the information it provides regarding abuse of humanitarian provisions of the Helsinki Accords by the USSR should be considered at future international human rights meetings such as those which have been held recently in Belgrade and Madrid. Abuses are presented in 11 areas--equal rights and the right of national self-determination, free choice of place of residence within the USSR, the right to leave one's country and return, freedom of conscience, the individual's right to know and act upon this right, socio-economic rights, the right to a fair trial, the situation of prisoners of conscience, psychiatric repression, the right to unmonitored communication, and improving compliance with the Final Act agreements. Within each category, background information is presented and the identification numbers of documents referring to a violation in the category in question are listed. Excerpts from documented cases of human rights abuse are included for each theme. The document concludes with a directory of imprisoned members of the Helsinki Monitoring Group. (DB)