Work on the project to counteract interethnic and interreligious conflicts continues
MOSCOW, July 14. At the conference which took place yesterday in the Independent Press Center the director of the Moscow Bureau For Human Rights Alexander Brod has put forward the preliminary results of the first year of work of the Moscow Bureau For Human Rights, the Moscow Helsinki group, and the Association of Committees for protection of Jews of the USSR (UCSJ) on the project: "A Public Campaign to Counteract Racism, Xenophobia, Anti-Semitism and Ethnic Discrimination in the Multiethnic Russian Federation.пїЅ
"During our work around one thousand five hundred references from victims were received, 10 court proceedings on defense from radical nationalists were begun, and in the near future a few briefings for the central staff of NGOпїЅs and human rights advocacy organizations will be prepared,пїЅ Mr. Brod announced.
The purpose of the project is to prevent the incitement of ethnic and religious tension both on the part of the Russian authorities and on the part of radical, extremist and neo-fascist groups and movements.
A hotline for consultation with victims of ethnic or religious persecution has been launched.
In the capitals of seven federal districts it is planned to open special legal centers.
Work on the preparation of educational programs aimed at the creation of tolerant consciousness in pupils and students continues.
According to Alexander Brod, realization of the three-year project will promote the creation of an effective coalition of state and public organizations in the struggle against chauvinism, political extremism, all kinds of xenophobia, the language of hostility and crimes on the basis of ethnic or religious differences.
