MINELRES: New reports: UCSJ & Moscow Helsinki Group: Russian Antisemitism and Xenophobia

[MINELRES moderator]

Original sender: UCSJ <ucsj@ucsj.com>


For Immediate Release: October 11, 2002
Moscow Contact: Aleksandr Brod (095) 207-3913
DC Contact: Nickolai Butkevich (202) 775-9770 x107

PRESS ADVISORY

UCSJ AND MOSCOW HELSINKI GROUP TO RELEASE NEW REPORTS ON RUSSIAN
ANTISEMITISM AND XENOPHOBIA TO CONGRESS

At 10:00, on Tuesday Oct. 15 in Room 2255, Rayburn House Office
Building, the Congressional Helsinki Commission (CSCE) will hear from
Ludmilla Alexeeva  (chair of the Moscow Helsinki Group and president of
the International Helsinki Federation) and Micah H. Naftalin (national
director, UCSJ) who will issue and discuss their new monitoring reports:
Nationalism Xenophobia and Intolerance in Contemporary Russia and
Antisemitism, Xenophobia and Religious Persecution in Russia's Regions -
2001.  Both reports are available on line at www.fsumonitor.com

According to Mr. Naftalin: "Our two NGOs have been partners for 25 years
and are emblematic of the coalition of human rights dissidents and
Refuseniks that contributed to the peaceful collapse of the Soviet
Union.  We have been leading the broader human rights community toward a
heightened appreciation that, in the aftermath of 9/11, xenophobia,
including antisemitism, deserves equal standing in the galaxy of human
rights concerns and that traditional campaigning for individual rights
at the hands of governments must now also take into account the threat
to society at large from such non-state actors as terrorists and racist
extremists."

Highlights

- The 250-page UCSJ annual report reflects a 30% increase in incidents
of hate crimes and hate speech compared to the previous year, some of
which is attributable to the aftermath of 9/11. Nearly 1,000 horrifying
citations, organized by region, point to a total breakdown in the
efficacy of Russia's criminal justice system.

- Rising Islamophobia is a byproduct of Russia's war in Chechnya.

- Antisemitism and xenophobia are crucial national security concerns
beyond the hate and intimidation aimed at specific peoples. Impunity
emboldens terrorists.

- Terrorists and racists do not operate by stealth.  Their hateful words
are predictive of their future crimes.  Monitoring is the early warning
equivalent of arms inspections.

- It is incumbent on the human rights community as well as governments
to take seriously both xenophobia, including antisemitism, and the
threat to society at large from non-governmental perpetrators of racism
and terror.

- UCSJ urges OSCE to hold a Supplemental Human Dimension Implementation
meeting on antisemitism in 2003 to identify best practices for
monitoring and reporting.

- MHG urges Russia to develop cooperative mechanisms with international
bodies to struggle against racism, xenophobia, discrimination and
intolerance.

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