April North Caucasus NGO Monitor

Reply-To: [email protected]
Sender: [email protected]
From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
Date: Wed, 5 May 1999 23:57:07 +0300 (EET DST)
Message-Id: <[email protected]>
Subject: April North Caucasus NGO Monitor

From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>

Original sender: Andre Kamenshikov <[email protected]>

April North Caucasus NGO Monitor


NORTH CAUCASUS NGO MONITOR
 
1. Dagestan "Center for Protection of Human Rights" - first year of
activities.
 
The Dagestan NGO "Center for the Protection of Human Rights" was
registered by the Republican Ministry of Justice on March 16, 1998.
 
This NGO was organized by a group of teachers of law - professors at
the Department of Law of the Dagestan State University.
 
The goal of the Center is to help the development of democratic
institutions in Dagestan, offer free legal assistance to citizens,
raise awareness of their rights and responsibilities.
 
In the first year of its activities the Center focused on organizing
practical activities of students of the Law Department of the Dagestan
State University.  Today senior students of the Law Department are
involved in offering free legal consulting to citizens, helping in
formulating documents that are necessary for court cases, assisting
people in getting through to governmental officials on various levels,
in contacting bailiffs and ensuring the implementation of court
decisions.
 
The Center is often involved in helping people restore their violated
rights. For example, the Center recently assisted a group of women who
were fired during the time when they were on their "pregnancy leaf".
Unfortunately similar problems are quite common today in Dagestan.
 
Currently, the Center is planning to put more emphasis on increasing
legal awareness of the general population. For this purpose the Center
is developing plans to create a newspaper focused on legal issues.
 
So far the activities of the Center have been carried out on a
volunteer basis.
 
Address:
Markova street 40, Mahachkala
Republic of Dagestan, 367000
Phone: (8722) 67-18-13
 
Members of the Center:
Mamedova Maya (manager)
Nimatellaeva Ravzanat
Hastinov Eldar
Alieva Djamilya
Hasbulatova Djamilya
 
2.  Foster home "Family" in Chehcnya.
 
This is an initiative of a Chechen women, Hadijat Gataeva, who in 1996
began to gather children that lost their parents during the war. She
collected such children, brought them to her home, and provided them
with food. Soon the news of this spread, and homeless children began
gathering around Hadijat.
 
Since her capabilities to assist homeless children were limited,
Hadijat wrote to various international humanitarian agencies, and soon
began receiving aid from the local "Red Cross".
 
By now Hadijat has assisted 98 children, a number of them were able to
find their parents. Currently there are 27 children in her house, ages
from 9 to 18. The government provided Hadijat with a house while the
local society of the Red Cross assists her with food.
 
Besides providing the children with shelter and food, Hadijat is
trying to organize their education. Currently she is in a difficult
situation. Due to the general state of affairs in Chechnya, she finds
it difficult to contact humanitarian organizations.
 
Address: Krasnyh Frontovikov street, 5,
Grozny, Chechnya
 
Contact: Gataeva Hadijat
 
3.  Ingush human rights activist persecuted.
 
Leila Tsoroeva, head of the Committee of Ingush Women "Almos" and an
active member of the Council of Social Organizations of Ingushetia was
going to participate in the elections to the local Parliament on
behalf of this Council. On January 9, 1999 she forwarded her documents
to the Electoral Committee to be registered as a candidate in the
upcoming elections. The next day the local police (MVD) had registered
her as a provider of narcotic substances.
 
On January 30, 1999 Leila Tsoroeva was registered as a candidate for
the Parliament of the Ingush Republic. On February 2 she was arrested
by the police and put in the local jail. This happened after drugs
were supposedly found in the bag that she herself (!) took to the
police when she was called in as a witness. On February 5 Leila
Tsoroeva was released on bail and the next day, February 6, the
Electoral Committee made a decision to exclude her candidacy from the
ballots.
 
On February 20 Leila Tsoroeva was arrested a second time and was kept
in the local jail till March 18. February 27, the day before the
elections, the local court made a ruling in support of the decision of
the Electoral Committee to exclude Ms. Tsoroeva from participating in
the elections. This happened in her absence, while she was held in the
local jail, despite her demands to be present on the court hearings.
 
On March 18, 1999 the local court found Leila Tsoroeva guilty in
possessing and keeping narcotics in large quantities without intending
to distribute them, and gave her a "provisional" sentence of 1.5
years. (This means that while she is left free, she may be arrested
and sent to jail for any minor felony, thus keeping her under constant
pressure of the local police).
 
Elections to the local Parliament took place on February 28, 1999.
There is not a single woman out of 21 elected deputies.
 
PS The objective of our "Monitor" is to provide information about the
constructive activities of local NGO's in the North Caucasus. However,
we believe that such serious problems as the one faced by Leila
Tsoroeva, who is one of the most active NGO representatives in
Ingushetia, must also get attention.
 
Address: Altievo, Tsoroeva street 1,
Nazran, Ingushetia
Russian Federation 366720
Phone: (87322) 2-42-02;  2-36-76
Tsoroeva Leila Muratovna
 
"North Caucasus NGO Monitor' is a publication produced by members of
"Nonviolence International - Newly Independent States" (NI-NIS) on a
fellowship from the Open Society Institute in Budapest. Its goals are:
 
- to help in exploring new approaches for humanitarian activities
which allow supporting elements of civil society in the North
Caucasus, while significantly lowering the security risks associated
with such activities;
 
- to provide continuous information about constructive activities of
NGO's on a community level in areas of tension and conflict in the
North Caucasus;
 
- to highlight the work of dedicated local activists, who despite
extreme difficulties work toward peace, reconciliation, social and
economical revival of their communities.
 
Phone and fax numbers in the bulletin are given with the Russian
internal area codes. When dialing from outside Russia or the CIS
states, the numbers provided must be preceded with 7 - Russia's
country code.
 
Names are given according to the Russian standard - surname before the
first name.
 
For questions and comments as well as to get additional information
about NGO activities in the North Caucasus please contact:
 
Nonviolence International - Newly Independent States,
 
Contact person  - Kamenshikov Andre
Luchnikov Lane, house 4, entrance 3, room 2
Moscow, Russia, 103982
Tel. (095) 206-8618 or 351-4855, fax 206-8853,
E-mail:  [email protected]
http: www.glasnet.ru/~ninis

-- 
==============================================================
MINELRES - a forum for discussion on minorities in Central&Eastern
Europe

Submissions: [email protected]  
Subscription/inquiries: [email protected] 
List archive: http://www.riga.lv/minelres/archive.htm
==============================================================