Abstract: From its inception, Charter 77 was part of a broader transnational human rights constellation. While its history has often been interpreted through the prism of the Helsinki process, this paper argues that the Charter's transnational entanglements extended far beyond the CSCE framework. Drawing on original archival research in multiple countries, the study situates Charter 77 within three interrelated layers of postwar international human rights politics: the institutional human rights internationalism of the United Nations system (with a focus on the International Labour Organization), the intergovernmental human rights diplomacy of the CSCE, and the activist human rights globalism of NGOs such as Amnesty International. Each of these levels represented a distinct yet interconnected mode of human rights transnationalism—differing in structure, agency, and political impact. By tracing the Charter's interaction with these arenas, the paper highlights the movement's dual role as both a beneficiary and a co-producer of the emerging global human rights regime. The analysis challenges the dominant "Helsinki narrative" by revealing the deeper structural and historical continuities between postwar internationalism, 1970s human rights globalism, and local dissident practices.
