MINELRES: RFE/RL (Un)Civil Societies Vol. 4, No. 16: excerpts

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RFE/RL (Un)Civil Societies
Vol. 4, No. 16, 14 July 2003

"We must...create a life worthy of ourselves and of the goals we only
dimly perceive." (Andrei Sakharov, 1975 Nobel Peace Prize Lecture)

....................

RUSSIA

ACTIVISTS LOBBY OSCE FOR ANTI-SEMITISM MONITORING UNIT 

Jewish activists have joked that in Russia, if you have a problem with
anti-Semitism, you can call the president of the country, but not your
local policeman. Russian President Vladimir Putin has taken pains to
speak out against anti-Semitism, as he did in his public condemnation of
the maiming of a Russian Jewish woman who stopped to dismantle a
booby-trapped anti-Semitic sign on a Moscow highway last year. "In
Russia, there have been in recent years very positive statements against
anti-Semitism at the highest federal level," Aleksei Korotaev of the
International League of Human Rights acknowledged in a speech at a
recent conference on the topic hosted by the Organization for Security
and Cooperation in Europe (see "Europe: OSCE Conference Looks At Ways To
Confront Anti-Semitism," rferl.org, 20 June)."Nevertheless, we know
instances when statements and even actions were made at lower levels
which contracted these positive statements," Korotayev said. The problem
is in getting local officials and policemen to take threats and attacks
against Jews seriously enough to monitor, prosecute, and prevent them.
No suspects in this or many other violent incidents against Jews have
been arrested in Russia. With Russia's many problems of intolerance,
Jewish activists are reluctant to appear to be placing their own
problems above those of other persecuted minorities such as Chechens.
Only outside groups like the U.S.-based Union of Councils for Soviet
Jews are able to monitor anti-Semitic incidents systematically.

Both Jewish community organizations and human rights groups in the U.S.
and Europe lobbied hard to get the OSCE to schedule the special
conference devoted solely to anti-Semitism, at times believing they
encountered unease and resistance among officials. While the conference
was ultimately successfully convened on 19-20 June, NGOs found some
governments were reluctant at first to devote an entire OSCE conference
to this controversial issue as conflicts in the Middle East have spurred
anti-Israel sentiment in Europe and translated into strained
relationships with Jewish and Muslim communities. Officials argued
privately that as a topic, anti-Semitism should be folded into other
OSCE conferences, such as one on religious freedom and another on racial
discrimination in general, where it would be on par with the problems
facing other ethnic and religious groups, rather than being singled out
for separate study that might prove counterproductive.

Activists and sympathetic lawmakers in both the U.S. and Europe
persisted in calling for the first-ever OSCE meeting devoted exclusively
to the subject for a variety of reasons. Anti-Semitism is an ancient
scourge in Christian civilization woven into religious and cultural
beliefs that led to the Holocaust. It continues to animate extremist
political parties as an ideology affecting the entire project of liberal
reform in Eastern Europe, and as Polish intellectual Adam Michnik once
explained, "a threat to the Jews is a threat to democracy, and a threat
to democracy is a threat to the Jews." Anti-Semitism has now taken on
new forms in Europe due to the challenges of Middle East politics and
the integration of Muslim communities in Europe. NGOs did not want to
dilute the issue by mixing anti-Semitism with other types of racial
discrimination in Europe precisely because many community leaders have
experienced denial among top officials and public figures that the
problem even exists, so determined are they to retain for themselves the
right to criticize Israel severely for its treatment of Palestinians
without being accused of anti-Semitism. One way bureaucrats can make the
problem disappear is by burying it in a long list of other types of
discrimination they are willing to acknowledge, such as discrimination
against Roma.

Last year, the U.S.-based Lawyers Committee for Human Rights released a
report, "Fire and Broken Glass," finding "an alarming rise in
anti-Semitic attacks in Europe" and said they "needed to be confronted
more forcefully and treated as serious violations of international human
rights." (For the full text of the report, see
http://www.lchr.org/pubs/antisemitism/antisemitism.htm.) "European
governments are not accurately reporting or effectively combating
anti-Semitic violence, creating a climate that has contributed to the
rise of anti-Jewish speech and violence. Often the official response of
governments is silence, or to attribute attacks to political protest,"
said the committee.

A group long in the forefront of advocating a "human rights" approach to
anti-Semitism is the Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of
Human Rights in New York, which convened a strategy meeting for NGOs
from Western and Eastern Europe in Vienna before the OSCE conference on
ant-Semitism. Harking back to a 1990 agreement made in Copenhagen by the
OSCE participants, which included both a recognition of anti-Semitism
and a call to find "effective means to combat it," the Blaustein
Institute advocated the establishment of a formal monitoring mechanism
within the OSCE to perform standardized monitoring of anti-Semitism in
OSCE countries which would include "registering anti-Semitic incidents
according to well-defined categories, building on international human
rights standards" and would involve awareness-raising campaigns and
education programs on human rights and non-discrimination.

Mikhail Chlenov, a Russian Jewish leader and secretary-general of the
Euro-Asian Jewish Congress, also proposed creating "an ongoing mechanism
within the OSCE to monitor, analyze, and combat anti-Semitism," and more
specifically, to create the position of a "special officer on
anti-Semitism and Jewish" issues, in a similar role to the existing
officer for Roma and Sinti issues. In regard to the day-to-day
functioning of multilateral institutions, until an official is given a
title involving an issue and the responsibility for following it, it is
difficult to get visibility and action, say NGOs. By contrast,
governments protest that creating special-interest posts is not only
expensive, but it prevents the integration of issues into the whole
organization's functioning. Nevertheless, due to mounting attacks on
Jews and their institutions, activists are likely to continue to press
for formalized monitoring and follow-up action, while recognizing
inherent difficulties in the process.

The OSCE conference highlighted what a number of NGOs have already been
discovering in Europe and North America - that there is no standardized
procedure for monitoring anti-Semitism and hate crimes within countries
or internationally, which makes it difficult both to compare levels of
intolerance and promote methods to combat it. Major obstacles to
successful monitoring are not only government indifference or
disagreements about definitions but the variations in approaches by
various communities at the grassroots. In some settings, especially
those where authorities either actively instigate or tolerate
anti-Semitism, Jewish communities, like other minorities, have evolved a
community response involving a focus on protection and prevention. They
seek - usually through quiet dialogue with relevant authorities - to
head off destruction of property and attacks on Jews during such
high-risk public events as soccer matches or Hitler's birthday, when
neo-Nazis stage marches. Meanwhile, in countries where the courts and
the media are more independent and effective, human rights activists
seek to use very public methods of shaming racists as well as vigorous
litigation to fight discrimination. The differing approaches entail
different kinds of information-gathering, styles of presentation of the
issues, and different remedies. In Russia, for example, Jewish, Roma,
and other minority communities have told prominent human rights
activists that they fear public shaming of racist officials or
high-impact court cases because it could lead to a backlash against
their communities and destruction of a fragile peace established through
personal relations with police chiefs and other officials. Human rights
leaders, as well as official city ombudsmen, speak of intervening
quietly with schools, for example, to reinstate Roma children who have
been expelled after hysterical press campaigns associating drug
trafficking with Roma.

The desire to maintain cooperative relations with the powers-that-be
upon whom protection depends has led some community organizations in
Eurasia to adopt decidedly pro-government stances, sometimes by
conviction and sometimes by necessity. Indicative of such an approach
was a presentation at the OSCE conference in Vienna by an Azerbaijani
Jewish leader, who vigorously took the official Azerbaijani position on
the Nagorno-Karabakh issue, then described the situation of Azerbaijan's
estimated 30,000 Jews in glowing terms even from the Soviet era, where
everything, he said, was done to make Jews feel at home in Baku, a
situation that "became especially brightly apparent" when Azerbaijani
President Heidar Aliev came to power - a characterization disputed by
Jews who emigrated.

Another obstacle to the integrated combating of anti-Semitism within the
OSCE is differences of opinion and law between Europe and the United
States on the issue of free expression and "hate speech." A number of
European countries have laws on the books criminalizing anti-Semitic
incitement, and have prosecuted authors of books denying the Holocaust,
for example. Groups participating in the OSCE meeting such as the
International Network Against Cyber Hate, active in the Netherlands,
Belgium, Germany, and Switzerland can take advantage of such existing
laws in their countries to prosecute incitement of violence against
minorities over the Internet.

In the U.S., such cases would not be possible, although increasingly,
politicians are calling for more vigorous prosecution of violent "hate
crimes." While the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guaranteeing
free speech may prevail in the broad public domain, institutions ranging
from private colleges to federal agencies have instituted their own
internal codes of behavior discouraging and even penalizing "hate
speech."  Recently, for example, appeals were heard in the case of two
New York firemen and a policeman who were fired after a 1998 Labor Day
Parade in which they wore blackface on their float and parodied the
dragging death of a black Texan. In June, a Manhattan federal judge
ruled that the government "may not prohibit the expression of an idea
simply because a segment of society finds it offensive" but the question
of their employment is still being reviewed. Rudolph Giuliani, former
mayor of New York City who led the U.S. delegation to the OSCE meeting
on anti-Semitism, upheld the decision while he was mayor to fire the
men, reasoning that while the First Amendment could protect their
speech, it did not mandate the city to employ them. "The city has a
right to remove cops and firefighters who act in a racially
discriminatory manner," the New York-based "Daily News" reported him as
saying on 25 June.

In September, the OSCE will convene another meeting on racism,
discrimination, and xenophobia, which some organizers are already
privately dubbing the "Islamophobia" meeting, in reference both to the
reality of rampant discrimination against Muslims following the
terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001, as well as to rancorous
international debates surrounding the UN's world conference against
racism in Durban, South Africa in 2001, where some delegations insisted
that "anti-Semitism" and "Islamophobia" always appear in texts equally
in tandem - or not at all. Activists from Jewish, Roma, and other
minority communities are once again organizing to ensure that all their
issues will receive equal treatment in an integrating Europe.

ROMA

BUDAPEST CONFERENCE ADDRESSES CHALLENGES FOR EUROPE'S ROMA 

Supported by the Hungarian government, philanthropist George Soros and
World Bank President James D. Wolfensohn are launching what they called
a "decade of the Roma" between 2005-2015, with a conference, "Roma In
Expanding Europe: Challenges For The Future," which was held in Budapest
on 30 June-2 July. Attended by European Union leaders, the premiers of
Romania, Bulgaria, Macedonia, and Montenegro, and top officials from the
Czech Republic, Slovakia, Serbia, and Croatia, the conference was
intended to focus European attention on the chronic problems of
discrimination and poverty faced by Roma. Some 5 million Roma are
expected to become EU citizens when eight Central and Eastern European
countries join the EU in 2004, to be followed by 4 million more when
Romania and Bulgaria are admitted, reported "Transitions Online" (see
http://www.tol.cz, 1-7 July 2003)

Reminiscent of the kind of "decades against racism" and other persistent
ills frequently declared by the United Nations, the Roma decade may take
a while to gain momentum and become effective. The onset was put off for
another two years most likely because a task force to be headed by
Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Medgyessy, host of the conference,
coordinating new and future EU members, is likely to take some time to
establish. Issues such as membership, agenda, and financing are still to
be determined, "Transitions Online" reported. Echoing U.S. President
George W. Bush's rallying cry about primary education in the United
States - "No child shall be left behind" - the World Bank's Wolfensohn
said at the Budapest conference, "Europe must not leave the Roma
behind."

Europe appears to have every reason to heed the call. The conference
comes at a time when the World Bank's new report on Roma and findings of
other bodies, such as the Council of Europe and the OSCE, are warning
that Romany children face serious discrimination in education, which
leads to unemployment and a life mired in poverty. Because, in
principle, workers will be able to move anywhere in the EU to seek
employment, the prospect of Europe's poorest migrants increasing their
mobility from east to west has prompted a new focus by EU leaders on
delivering equality to the Romany community.

European officials are recognizing the key issues Romany leaders
themselves are calling the most urgent - education, employment, and
housing - as Rumyan Russinov, a Bulgarian Rom representing seven young
Romany leader delegations, said in a speech circulated 2 July by the
European Roma Rights Center.

Education can be a code word for socialization into the mainstream
culture and conformity with values that minorities can find alien.
Therefore, Romany leaders themselves have specified in great detail the
kind of education they seek - obligatory and free pre-school in
desegregated classrooms, Romany assistants in the classroom, anti-bias
training for teachers and school administrators, and inclusion of Romany
parents in school-based decision-making. Most urgently, Romany leaders
want an end to a practice they have identified for example in Slovakia,
where children undergo psychological testing that often leads to their
placement in special schools. Beginning next September, Romany leaders
hope to see first-graders no longer shunted into schools for children
with learning disabilities and would like to see them mainstreamed,
along with social support for disadvantaged Romany families and the
integration of Romany history and culture in textbooks, says Russinov.
Other county-specific proposals include a call on Bulgaria to establish
a fund for support of desegregation of education; a plea to Hungary to
involve Romany parents in education of their children in cooperation
with the schools; for the Czech Republic to expand an existing national
action plan for Roma by establishing information centers to link Romany
communities and educational authorities; and a call for affirmative
action programs in Romania and Serbia and Montenegro for Roma in high
schools and universities.

Russinov and other leaders are keenly aware of the cost of such
sustained educational intervention, but pragmatically make the case to
European leaders that the cost of maintaining an underclass will be even
greater. "We know that this will be expensive but we cannot imagine that
it is more expensive than keeping us illiterate and on social benefits
for all of our lives. We want to participate fully in society and we
want to have access to equal education and meaningful jobs," Russinov
said.

Bringing Roma to such full participation will require a mixture of
ending obstacles of access combined with investment for the future,
including resolving property ownership and distribution of municipal
property in the Balkans; ending the practice of locating housing for
Roma on the outskirts of cities and opening up access to apartments
throughout the city. Tax-incentives for businesses hiring Roma and
low-interest loans for Romany families are proposed for development,
along with construction tender set-asides. Generally, the Romany
activists proposed more direct funding to the community, rather than
project grants to non-Roma, and more involvement of the Roma themselves
in the planning of EU-sponsored aid and development projects.

Soros's own foundations plan to wind down some 13 years of funding of
Romany projects throughout their networks in Central and Eastern Europe.
The end of Soros funding is not a declaration of victory but rather a
tacit announcement that a major Western donor will no longer serve as an
enabler to governments that shirk their social responsibilities. In the
case of the Roma, some leaders appear to have taken up the challenge.
"Europe owes the Roma a lot, and should start paying them back as soon
as possible," "Transitions Online" quoted Prime Minister Medgyessy as
saying.

While Soros is not indicating any new investment, in a 1 July press
release, the World Bank pledged to support the Roma initiative with a
special education fund. Education is "the single best way out of the
Roma's current impasse," said Wolfensohn. The conference was
characterized as the first time that the plight of the Roma was
receiving high-level, integrated attention across Europe. While
representing an impressive outreach to struggling Romany communities,
the new focus comes with a pointed message about cultural clashes
described in human rights terms. Anna Diamantopoulou, the EU's
commissioner for employment and social affairs, warned Roma in her
speech at the Budapest conference that traditions that breach human
rights would not be tolerated in the EU. "When fundamental human rights
and certain traditions collide, it is the traditions that must change,"
AP quoted Diamantopouluo as saying in a 30 June report. The practices in
question include arranged marriages of teenagers, bride-selling, and
keeping children away from school.

According to information in the 148-page World Bank report reported by
AP, Romany children have a much poorer attendance rate at school, and 44
percent of Romany men and 59 percent of Romany women were found to be
illiterate in 1992. Because the Romany population is growing, many more
young people are expected to be seeking access to education and the job
market in the coming decades.

Coinciding with the Budapest conference, Romany activists in Russia
convened the first Open Congress of Interregional Russian Romany Public
Organizations Union on 1 July, titled more bluntly than its European
counterpart, "The Problems of Russian State Policy Toward the Roma
Population." The conference addressed the lack of official attention to
Romany problems, organizers said in a statement released by the Roma
Network and circulated by MINELRES, an Internet discussion list on
minority rights on 2 July. Unlike the Budapest conference, there were no
high-level officials in attendance. The organizers said that Romany
communities face difficulties in dealing with local governments. "One of
the main reasons for this is a low educational level, as well as
ignorance of their rights and, as a result, the inability to assert
these rights before the authorities," Georgy Tsvetkov, the union's
president, told the congress.

While the Budapest meeting built on momentum created in many smaller
national projects and received high-level attention from officialdom,
the Moscow meeting pointed to a more challenging picture where basic
communication and cooperation was missing between the government and
Romany communities in Russia. On the one hand, "Critical social problems
in combination with the lack of education lead to criminalization," say
the Russian Romany organizers, on the other, "state policy toward
national minorities" is to blame, due to prejudice and biased media
coverage, a claim borne out by human rights groups such as the Moscow
Helsinki Group, which have been monitoring hate speech in the press.

Whereas the countries attending the Budapest meeting already have
various NGOs working on drafting more sophisticated proposals to enhance
existing government plans, the call of Romany activists from 15 groups
across Russia was more basic: an appeal to the State Duma simply to
begin a Romany program in Russia to focus on the many problems faced by
the community. The Russian conference was sponsored by a group called
Main Roads, which maintains a Russian-language website at
http://www.romale.ru. Its leaders include Marianna
Smirnova-Seslavinskaya, a professional dancer and cultural specialist at
the Institute for Philosophy currently preparing a dissertation on
Romany music; Georgy Tsvetkov, a theater director and Romany linguist;
photographer Mikhail Ivanov; artist Nikolai Bessonov; and Tamara
Demeter, a costume designer for the State Circus.

RECOMMENDED NEWS LINKS

INTERNATIONAL. The World Bank has made nine loans for projects
supporting social services for Roma in Albania, Bulgaria, Romania, and
Slovakia. Seven grants in Bulgaria, Hungary, Macedonia, and Slovakia
focused specifically on minority and Romany issues. Information on
Roma-related projects and the recent three-day conference on Roma, as
well as a report tied to the conference titled, "Roma In An Expanding
Europe: Breaking The Poverty Cycle" are available at
http://www.worldbank.org/romaconference

INTERNATIONAL. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe
convened a special conference devoted to the problems of anti-Semitism
in Europe. Speeches by some of the more than 150 government and
nongovernmental representatives present are available at
http://www.osce.org/events/conferences/anti-semitism/index.php

.......................

(Compiled by Catherine A. Fitzpatrick)
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Copyright (c) 2003. RFE/RL, Inc. All rights reserved.

"RFE/RL (Un)Civil Societies" is prepared by Catherine Fitzpatrick on the
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