For Immediate Release November 5, 2007
Contact: Nickolai Butkevich (202) 641-7420
Micah Naftalin (202) 237-8262 x101

Washington, DC--At a time when racist violence is growing to alarming levels in Russia and Ukraine, two officials from UCSJ: Union of Councils for Jews in the Former Soviet Union will brief the Congress's Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe this Tuesday. The November 6 hearing will take place at 10:00 a.m. in room 1539 of the Longworth House Office Building. A copy of the Briefing Paper is available at http://www.fsumonitor.com/stories/UCSJHateCrimesBriefingPaper.pdf.

Micah H. Naftalin, UCSJ's National Director (CEO), and Nickolai Butkevich, UCSJ's Research and Advocacy Director, will join Dr. Dou Dou Diene--the UN's Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance--and Dr. Tiffany Lightbourn of the Department of Homeland Security, who will focus on Western Europe, at the hearing.

UCSJ's testimony and detailed Briefing Paper will focus on the rapid growth in hate crimes in Russia, where the government is increasingly catering to nationalist voters as part of a dangerous political elections strategy. Two days before the hearing, Russian neo-fascists will march in Moscow in an officially sanctioned rally, despite the fact that Russian law outlaws the incitement of ethnic hatred, whereas Moscow police have violently dispersed non-violent rallies by opposition and gay rights activists.

In Ukraine, neo-Nazi groups have become increasingly active over the past four years, primarily targeting Jews. In the last four days of September 2007 there were four recorded attacks on Jews in Ukrainian cities--only one of which has been solved by local police. The level of impunity that hate groups enjoy in these countries, the speakers will argue, provides a useful bellwether for judging rule of law issues such as corruption and dysfunction of a country's criminal justice system.

UCSJ testimony will also focus on the recent inauguration, in cooperation with the Moscow Helsinki Group, of the Coalition Against Hate (www.CoaltionAgainstHate.org)--an alliance of 30 human rights and religious freedom NGOs across the Russian Federation, Ukraine and Belarus, which through the medium of a bi-lingual blog, will promote coordination of counter-action against the activities of neo-Nazi groups and disseminate information about hate crimes and how the authorities respond to them, becoming the central address for understanding this crucial human rights concern and foreign policy.

Download a copy of the Briefing Paper at: http://www.fsumonitor.com/stories/UCSJHateCrimesBriefingPaper.pdf

NB. UCSJ will soon assemble a “leadership committee” of human rights and religious freedom opinion leaders to help mobilize broad public opinion and advocacy in support of the international Coalition Against Hate – an important complement to Western foreign policy. Expressions of your comments on the Briefing Paper and your interest in leadership involvement should be addressed to Micah Naftalin – mnaftalin [at] ucsj.com.

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