Center for Civil Society International ([email protected])
Wed, 3 Dec 1997 16:15:18 -0800 (PST)
CCSI presents excerpts from the Agency for Social Information (ASI) e-mail
information bulletin. Translated from Russian by CCSI volunteer Alyssa
Deutschler. For more information on how to receive ASI's bulletin
regularly, contact:
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AGENTSTVO SOTSIALNOI INFORMATSII
Kutuzovskyi pr. 22 pod. 14a,
Moscow, 121151
Tel./fax: (095) 249-3989
E-mail: [email protected]
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ASI Bulletin No. 45
7 - 13 November, 1997
I. Children's Advocate Alevtina Aparina
II. Environmental Activists Travel to Japan by Train
III. Memorial Society of Ekaterinburg Publishes Book to
Honor Victims of Political Repression
IV. Housing Reform Fails to Meet Needs of the People,
Say Members of the Property Owners' Union
V. Women from the Provinces Learn to Fight for Their Rights
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Children's Advocate Alevtina Aparina
On November 11 Alevtina Aparina, chairwoman of the Committee on Women,
Children & the Family, held a press conference at the Duma offices. The
theme of the conference was "Can a government be considered healthy if its
children are sick?"
According to data from the Committee on Women, Children & the Family,
Russia is currently faced with a critical demographic situation: the
number of the population under sixteen years old has dropped by 2.5
million compared to population statistics from 1992; for children under
five, the population has decreased by 3 million since 1992. The birth
rate for today's children is drastically lower than that of their parent's
generation, while the infant mortality rate in Russia is over three times
higher than in Western Europe. For every 1000 children born in 1996,
there were 17 deaths in the first year of life--and many of the surviving
children cannot be considered truly healthy. According to figures given
by the organization "Women for the Health of the Nation," more than fifty
percent of Russia's school-age children have a chronic illness or have had
a serious childhood disease. For example, in the past five years, the
number of children with tuberculosis has risen by three times.
In addition, Aparina presented the results of an investigation carried out
by the Ministries of Public Health and Internal Affairs, together with the
Committee on Women, Children & the Family. Among the facts revealed:
more than one million children in Russia are considered disabled (with
150,000 of them classified as abandoned by their parents); the number of
children characterized as developmentally disabled has grown by twenty
times in the past ten years; and 12 million Russian children are
inadequately nourished.
Aparina, however, sees positive developments in the legislature that could
help improve the situation of Russia's children. The Committee on Women,
Children & the Family has formed a working group that is drafting a law
"On the protection of children's health," and is contributing to the
presidential program, "Children of Russia."
Contact telephone: 292-1978 (Committee on Women, Children & the Family)
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Environmental Activists Travel to Japan by Train
November 12 marked the beginning of an unprecedented event in the history
of the environmental movement. More than thirty environmental activists
from England, Croatia, Hungary, Romania, Poland, Germany, Finland,
Georgia, Ukraine, the United States and Russia boarded a train in
Novosibirsk, heading towards Japan. The activists' final destination will
be Kyoto, Japan, where an international conference on global warming will
take place December 1-14. At all the stops along the route to Kyoto, the
passengers on the so-called "agit-train" will hold seminars and rallies in
an attempt to bring public attention to the issue of global warming. The
Russian representatives on board the agit-train are ecologists from
Novosibirsk--members of Siberian Ecological Foundation and the Institute
for Social-Economic Relations.
Scientists have found that one of the many factors contributing to global
warming is gas emitted from airplanes. As a consequence, the activists
decided to forego a plane trip to Kyoto and take the train instead. "Of
course, no one is asking for people to give up convenient and easy means
of modern transportation," stated Dietrich Brothagen, a physicist from
Germany who is taking part in the event, "but rather to comprehend the
dangers that result from such conveniences."
According to data from a United Nation's commission on global warming,
serious climate changes are already occuring. The causes of global
warming range from the "greenhouse" effect of burning fossil fuels to the
decimation of forests around the world. Evidence of the negative effects
of climate change on the environment are already apparent--cruel droughts
in one part of the world, floods and tropical storms in another part.
Experts believe that if drastic measures aren't implemented soon, the
results of global warming will turn out to be catastrophic for the planet.
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Memorial Society of Ekaterinburg Publishes Book to
Honor Victims of Political Repression
"The Memory of Grief" was published by the Memorial Society, a human
rights group in Ekaterinburg. The author of the book is Aleksandr Nosov,
an economist and former political prisoner. Nosov researched government
archives to find out information about the eighteen thousand political
prisoners who are buried outside of Ekaterinburg. Among the GULAG victims
were children and the elderly. Sometimes entire families were victims of
repression. Nosov regretted that the limited size of the book didn't
afford him the opportunity to publish a comprehensive list of all the
Ekaterinburg victims about whom he found information.
Contact telephone: (3432) 51-4227 (Memorial Society)
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Housing Reform Fails to Meet Needs of the People,
Say Members of the Property Owners' Union
On November 11 and 12 the All-Russian Center for Economic Development held
a conference in Moscow entitled, "Housing Reform--Strategies for the 21st
Century." Attendees at the conference included employees from the
communal housing administration, NGO members, and local government
representatives from across Russia--from Kaliningrad to Chukotki. Natalia
Fonareva, from the federal Anti-Monopoly Committee, and Leonid Chernyshov,
from the Department of Construction, also attended the conference.
In an interview with an ASI correspondent, the president of the Property
Owners' Union, German Lomtev, said that housing reform is progressing
slowly due to the fact that it is far-removed from the real needs and
wants of Russian citizens and relies heavily on the American model.
"Property owners' associations have been successful in the United States
because of the large numbers of private homeowners there. But in Russia,
privatization of housing exists largely on paper. It's the
government--not private citizens--who continues to own the lion's share of
housing," states Lomtev. "The majority of people don't own their
apartments, but rent them. Thus, we need some sort of renter's union like
they have in Sweden."
According to Leonid Chernyshov, housing reform has different success rates
in different regions. The speed and results of reform depend on the
extent to which the regional administration understands its importance.
In Ryazan, Samara, and Novgorod oblasts, where government-devised housing
reform concepts and documents were implemented from the beginning, good
results are appearing--competition within the housing sector is
flourishing, resulting in higher quality housing services, and more
efficient use of residential water and electricity. However, in several
oblasts (notably Tula and Bryanskoi), the local administration has failed
to adequately educate citizens about housing reforms. Consequently, the
population there equates "reform" with "higher prices." Meanwhile, the
sewer systems are falling into disrepair, heating systems are becoming
dilapidated, elevators are out of order, and citizens are hostages of
their government's inaction.
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Women from the Provinces Learn to Fight for Their Rights
Recently a meeting was held at the Center for Women, Family and Gender
Research, publicizing the results of a project aimed at women entitled,
"Knowledge of our rights makes us stronger." The project concluded with a
series of seminars for women's organizations in Tver, Langepas, Podol'sk,
Istr, and Dzerzhinskii--towns in the Podmoskovskii region. Seminar
participants used the Russian version of a book originally written by
American professor of human rights, Julie Mertus. The book, "Women's
Rights are Human Rights," was adapted for use in Russia by Tatiana
Zabelina and Evgenia Israelyan, directors of the Center for Women, Family
and Gender Research.
"Judging by the opinions of the participants, the seminars had a practical
result," said Tatiana Zabelina. "We realized that women in the provinces
are more interested in the issue of their rights than Muscovite women.
Our seminars took place in small towns, where students, teachers, Duma
deputies, journalists, and representatives from the government all
participated. As the seminars progressed, interest in women's issues and
organizations grew. In several towns, the local administration even took
responsbility for funding the seminar."
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| CCSI presents excerpts from the ASI Bulletin. The |
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