Center for Civil Society International ([email protected])
Tue, 26 May 1998 11:28:48 -0700 (PDT)
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. 13
3-9 April, 1998
In this issue:
I. Anti-Fascist Youth Movement Holds Rock Concert to Protest
Military Draft
II. Citizen's Legal Education Center Opens in Novosibirsk
III. Children's Rights Activists Speak Out for Free Medical
Care & Education for Russian Children
IV. Greenpeace Members Collect Signatures to Protect Wooded
Areas in Moscow
V. Son's Beating Prompts Mother in Krasnoyarsk to Form
Children's Rights Organization
* * * * * * * * *
Anti-Fascist Youth Movement Holds Rock Concert
to Protest Military Draft
On April 4 the Saratov-based Anti-Fascist Youth Movement (AYM) held
a rock concert to protest mandatory military service in the Russian
Federation. According to Anna Mazhuga, coordinator of the Saratov
oblast AYM, the majority of Saratov residents are in agreement with
AYM's anti-draft platform. This platform advocates alternative
service for those who don't wish to serve in the army and recommends
that President Yeltsin's edict on the establishment of a
professional army in Russia by the year 2000 be carried out as soon
as possible.
Since there is no local branch of the Anti-Military Radical
Association in Saratov, the Anti-Fascist Youth Movement has been
obliged to take on many of its anti-draft functions. AYM used the
rock concert as an opportunity to attract the attention of young
people and inform them about their rights and alternatives to
military service. Along with distributing leaflets explaining AYM's
goals and future plans, the group sold pins at the concert that
featured the youth movement's symbol. At the entrance to the
concert hall, young activists put a Nazi flag on the floor and
invited concert goers to wipe their feet before entering. At first
attendees were reluctant to soil the flag, but the symbolic act soon
caught on and by the end of the evening the flag resembled a dirty
rag.
AYM invited all of Saratov's youth to the rock concert�including
local skinheads and other extremist groups. However, no clashes
between groups or fights were reported.
AYM plans to hold another rally on May 8 (Victory Day) and have
asked local veterans to participate.
* * * * * * * * *
Citizen's Legal Education Center Opens in Novosibirsk
The Novosibirsk Committee for Stockholders' Rights celebrated its
third anniversary on April 7. "Over the past three years a new
generation of people has developed who understand business and know
their way around the market. However, the majority of the
population still has a very limited understanding of these matters,"
stated Victor Shil'nikov, director of the Novosibirsk Committee for
Stockholders' Rights. Shil'nikov's group, together with a human
rights organization "Rights Defense," received a grant this year to
create the Citizen's Legal Education Center, which is particularly
focused on the issue of economic rights.
Two times a month specialists from the Legal Education Center answer
callers' questions on Radio "Slovo" and information from the Center
is regularly featured on a local TV program ("Business News") and in
the Novosibirsk newspaper, "New Siberia." Victor Shil'nikov says
that the Center's programs have shown that simply informing the
public about economic rights is not enough, "we must take it to the
next level and work for the legal protection for all mechanisms of
the market economy." To this end, the Center has helped a local
stockholders' assembly prepare legal documents and has come to the
defense of investors in various legal proceedings.
In the coming year the Center intends to expand its activities into
five regions of the Novosibirsk oblast. Specialists will visit
businesses, give lectures and hold consultations, advising investors
how to prepare documents and informing them of their legal rights
and responsibilities.
Contact telephone: (3932) 46-3017
* * * * * * * * *
Children's Rights Activists Speak Out
for Free Medical Care & Education for Russian Children
Members of a new union of social organizations called "For the
Salvation of Russia's Children" met in Moscow on April 4. The union
was created through the joint efforts of voluntary organizations and
NGOs, along with the Duma Committee on Women, Children and the
Family. 140 organizations have already joined the union, including:
the All-Russian Women's Union; the interregional movement "Family-
Society-Tradition;" the International Union for the Social
Protection of Children, and the Moscow foundation "Doctors for the
Disabled." The purpose of the union is to consolidate social and
governmental groups on a non-political level with the goal of
creating and implementing a system to protect Russia's children.
Participants at the April 4 meeting are concerned that many rights
guaranteed to children under the statutes of both the Russian
constitution and the UN Convention on Human Rights are being
violated. In a report presented at the meeting, the chairwoman of
the Duma Committee on Women, Children and the Family, Alevtina
Aparina, cited the following statistics: "More than two thirds of
Russia's families fall below the poverty level. There are nearly
two million neglected children in Russia, and 500,000 orphans. And,
according to data from a January 1998 survey, a majority of
teenagers regularly imbibe alcohol and drugs. The mortality rate
for Russian teens grew three times from 1995 to 1998."
Union members passed a resolution at the meeting to support measures
guaranteeing children opportunities for rest during school vacations
[e.g. guaranteeing access to summer camps and sanitaria] and
assuring children access to free education and school materials.
The union also resolved to help refugee children, as well as
children in war-torn areas. According to those gathered at the
meeting, a certain percentage of revenues from taxes on gas, alcohol
and cigarettes should be diverted to fund programs beneficial to
children.
Members of "For the Salvation of Russia's Children" are currently
developing a program that will unite NGOs and voluntary
organizations in aiding children. The program will be discussed at
the union's meeting in November 1998.
* * * * * * * * *
Greenpeace Members Collect Signatures
to Protect Wooded Areas in Moscow
For the past three weeks, members of the Moscow branch of Greenpeace
have been collecting signatures in support of a city referendum that
would restrict cutting down trees in wooded areas and require that
felled trees be replaced. According to a source at Greenpeace-
Russia, several thousand people have already signed petitions in
support of the referendum. The group must collect at least 100,000
signatures by July 1, 1998 in order to bring the referendum to a
vote.
Greenpeace members feel that if the majority of Muscovites express
their support for the referendum, it will make it easier to resolve
one of the capitol's greatest problems--the lack of legal protection
for Moscow's trees, which are being cut down at an alarming rate.
It is hoped that the referendum will implement a system of
"compensation" for Moscow's trees, following the principle of "cut
down one, plant two."
* * * * * * * * *
Son's Beating Prompts Mother in Krasnoyarsk
to Form Children's Rights Organization
The regional justice department of Krasnoyarsk Krai is currently
reviewing an application for the registration of a new NGO--the
regional organization "Social Protection of Children's Rights." The
new organization was created by Natalia Sozinova, who decided to
take action after her son Maksim was severely beaten by his
classmates at school. Maksim Sozinov's motor abilities have been
affected by his head injuries and he is in much pain.
At first, Natalia Sozinova sought redress for Maksim's injuries from
the teachers and director at Maksim's school, but she was told
"children fight all the time--it's normal" and was advised to speak
to the families of the children involved in the beating herself.
However, Sozinova's conversations with the children's families
brought no results, and she was unable to get Maksim's school to
admit any sort of responsibility for failing to protect him.
Her battle with the school administration was ultimately fruitless;
but the fight for her own child's rights inspired Natalia Sozinova
to create a group dedicated to protecting children.
Contact telephone: (3912) 49-5401 (Natalia Sozinova)
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| CCSI presents excerpts from the ASI Bulletin. The |
| ASI Bulletin is a publication of the Agency for Social |
| Information (ASI) in Moscow. Originally published in |
| Russian, selected stories are translated and posted to |
| the CCSI listserv CivilSoc. Back issues are available |
| in both English and Russian language by following the |
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