FM Alert, Vol II, No. 14

From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Date: Mon, 6 Apr 1998 10:05:37 +0300 (EET DST)
Message-Id: <[email protected]>
Subject: FM Alert, Vol II, No. 14

From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]> 

Original sender: Justin Burke <[email protected]>

FM Alert, Vol II, No. 14


FM Alert, Vol. II, No. 14
 
IRF JOINS EFFORT TO BUILD CRIMEAN TATAR LIBRARY
 
The International Renaissance Foundation (IRF) is participating in a
multilateral effort to build a library for the Tatar community in
Ukraine's Crimean peninsula. Final plans are expected to be approved
before the end of May, allowing work to begin on the estimated
$280,000 project in late 1998. Other participants in the project
include the government of the Netherlands and the Crimean regional
government's State Committee for Nationalities. In addition to the
library, the IRF has allocated $430,000 for its program, "The
Integration of Formerly Deported Crimean Tatars, Germans, Greeks,
Bulgarians and Armenians into the Ukrainian Community." The program is
focusing much of its attention in 1998 on education projects. The
integration program also aims to promote objectivity in the mass
media, the cultural revival of formerly deported peoples and the
development of non-governmental organizations. Competitions for
grants, made available under the integration program, are scheduled to
be announced April 10. The Crimean Tatars are the largest of the
formerly deported peoples in Crimea, with about 260,000 persons living
across the peninsula. Hundreds of Crimean Tatars - protesting their
lack of Ukrainian citizenship, which rendered them ineligible to vote
in Ukraine's recent parliamentary election - clashed with law
enforcement authorities during the campaign. However, the
post-election climate in Crimea has stabilized, according to IRF
integration program administrators. 
(For background information see FM Alert of 20 November 1997, 30
January, 1998, and 6 February, 1998).


NEW IOM OFFICE HEAD IN UKRAINE
 
The chief of the International Organization for Migration's (IOM)
office in Ukraine, John S. Cook, is completing his first month in his
new assignment. Cook replaced Nicolaas de Zwager as the top IOM
representative in Kyiv on March 4. Previously, Cook served as chief
IOM representative in Armenia from 1995-96. Before moving to Ukraine,
he served as the IOM's chief of operations in the Caucasus region,
based in Tbilisi, Georgia. He is a United States citizen.  The IOM,
operating under the auspices of the Program of Action adopted at the
1996 CIS Conference on migration-related issues, aims to assist the
Ukrainian government in "finalizing a comprehensive migration policy
and consolidating existing migration legislation." IOM also plans to
engage in local non-governmental organization capacity building. The
IOM's 1998 appeal seeks $1.57 million to fund its activities. 
(For additional information see FM Alert of 22 August, 1997).
 

ADVOCATES SEEK LANDMARK RULING FOR ROMA RIGHTS IN CZECH REPUBLIC
 
Advocates for a Roma resident of the Czech Republic are petitioning
the European Commission for Human Rights, seeking a landmark ruling
that would expand legal protection of Roma in that Central European
nation. The case involves Juraj Lakatos, who is now serving a two-year
prison sentence for assault, and who has been ordered expelled by a
Czech court upon the completion of his sentence. Lawyers for Lakatos
argue that the expulsion order is an excessive penalty, and therefore
violates the Czech constitution, which incorporates the 1950 European
Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms
(ECHR). Czech citizenship laws render Lakatos vulnerable as he does
not hold Czech citizenship, even though he was born in the former
Czechoslovakia - which split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia in
1993 - and had lived in Prague for six years prior to his arrest in
1996. Lakatos' lawyers hope a European Commission ruling in favor of
their client would increase the pressure on Czech courts to uphold
European human rights standards. Roma in the Czech Republic have been
frequent victims of discrimination, ranging from administrative abuse
to physical attacks by xenophobic skinheads. Data compiled by the
Prague-based Tolerance Foundation indicates that Roma are a particular
target for expulsion. For example, of the 120 persons deported by the
Czech Republic to neighboring Slovakia in 1996, 118 were Roma.
 
For more information contact:
The Forced Migration Projects
400 West 59th Street, 4th floor
New York, NY 10019
tel: (212)548-0655
fax: (212) 548-4676
e-mail: [email protected]
website: www.soros.org/migrate.html

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