As human rights and civil society activists, we are highly disturbed by the fact that certain local legislative authorities, namely in Arkhangelsk and Kostroma regions and in St. Petersburg, passed discriminatory bills.
We express great concern about the fact that on March 7th, the Governor of St. Petersburg signed the law against the so-called "homosexual propaganda" despite the fact that Vladimir Lukin, Commissioner for Human Rights in the Russian Federation, regarded such legislation as violation of human rights.
Ales Bialiatski, vice-president FIDH, head of the closed by authorities human rights center "Viasna" and YHRM Honorary Participant has finally been convoyed to Babruisk penal colony No. 2, after he left Zhodzina prison to spend eleven days in a detention center in Minsk, says the human rights defender's wife, quoting the penal facility's administration.
Between 17-20 of February advanced seminar aiming in preparing future trainers in the area of human rights took place. In the seminar participated representatives of various civil and human rights organizations from European part of Russia and from Ukraine and Belarus.
On february 6, 2012, a training “New Media and Civil Society” took place in Moscow. It was attended by 30 activists from NGOs in Belarus, Russia and Ukraine. The training was held by Dmitry Makarov and Maria Gordeeva.
This miracle happened at the end of World War II, January 27th 1945: the Red Army freed Auschwitz-Birkenau, the death camp on the territory of present-day Poland. Decades later, on january 26th 2012 Eva Minni Schloss, who was set free in 1945 at that exact date, met with the soldiers-liberators in the Memorial Synagogue on Poklonnaya Hill in Moscow.
In 2005 the UN General Assembly designated January 27 as International Holocaust Remembrance Day, but in Russia, the successor of the USSR, this day is not honored at the national level so far.
Between 27 and 30 November in Voronezh took place international conference titled “The development of international civil initiatives against racism and violence in Russia and Russian-speaking countries”. More than 60 people from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, South Ossetia, Lithuanian, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Finland, Germany, Netherlands, United Kingdom, Turkey and Scythia participated in conference.
We need new utopias, which would give us at least a chance to dream.
Daniel Goretsky, Andrey Yurov
"Theses on freedom"
Not only don’t you like these outrageous actions of the fascists, fundamentalists, radical nationalists, militarists, supporters of the "firm hand" - but you also think that our world was created for something completely different?
"Cooperation of NGOs, educational institutions, libraries and educational authorities in the field of preventing xenophobia among youth", Moscow (Russia), 8 November 2011, 14-00 – 17-00 in Conference Hall (International Memorial House/Karetni Ryad 5/10)
In the last years there appeared a great deal of approaches, methods and ideas in respond to xenophobia and discrimination, the rise of nationalism, and failure of multiculturalism ideology that present different views on how to oppose these challenges. All these ideas are based on different understandings of the world and social and educational work. Very often they are developed in closed teams, separate organizations and are practiced independently.
On September 10-12, 2011 the World Assembly "Civil society and global issues: improving situation" took place in Montreal (Canada). It is annually held under the aegis of CIVICUS – the World Alliance for Citizen Participation. There were several subject lines that grouped around all sessions of the Assembly: "Civil society and democratic space", "Connections between people via technology", "Development effectiveness" and "Climate justice".
From 26 September to 7 October, the Annual Meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) on human dimension took place in Warsaw (Poland). The event was attended by the representatives of the OSCE member states, international experts, human rights defenders and NGOs activists.
A second study visit to the Netherlands on anti-racism and anti-fascism finished last week. The organizers of this tour for the young Russian activists were the European Network Against Racism (UNITED for Intercultural Action), the International Youth Human Rights Movement (YHRM) and the Youth Network against Racism and Intolerance (YNRI).
On September 25, the 5th session of the International Students School of Human Rights/Student Rights took place in Kyiv. Traditionally, the school is held for two days, the first of which is devoted to introducing the concept of Human Rights and advocacy, and the second – to Student Rights and searching solutions to the problems relating to students as a social group.
Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority It is time to sit back and reflect.
Mark Twain
Интервью Радио России секретаря Молодежной сети против расизма и нетерпимости Александра Друка о международной акции "Стоп расизм", которая прошла с 17 по 27 марта в городах России и Новых Независимых государств
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